Screening Filters
Price: min $1, max $30
- Purpose: Focus on lower-priced stocks that can be actively traded with a small account (around $300) while avoiding the riskiest penny stocks.
- Rationale:
- With $300, you need stocks cheap enough to buy a meaningful number of shares (e.g., 10–100 shares) so that intraday price moves can translate into noticeable dollar gains.
- A $5–$20 stock moving 3–5% intraday can provide better trading opportunities than a $200 stock where you might only afford 1 share.
- The $1 lower bound helps filter out ultra-low-priced, often illiquid penny stocks that can be extremely risky and prone to manipulation.
Relative Volume (relative_vol): min 1.5
- Purpose: Find stocks trading with at least 1.5x their normal volume, indicating unusual activity and interest—key for day trading.
- Rationale:
- Day traders rely on liquidity (easy to get in and out) and volatility (price movement).
- Elevated relative volume usually signals news, catalysts, or momentum, leading to stronger and more tradable intraday price swings.
- Higher volume also tends to mean tighter bid-ask spreads, which is important for a small account so you don’t lose too much just on the spread.
Beta: HighRisk
- Purpose: Select higher-beta (more volatile) stocks that move more than the overall market—suitable for short-term trading strategies.
- Rationale:
- “HighRisk” here maps to high beta: stocks that tend to move more than the S&P 500 on a percentage basis.
- For day trading, you want movement; stable, low-beta stocks may barely move intraday and offer limited opportunity.
- With a small account, you generally need stocks that can make meaningful intraday moves; higher beta increases the chance of that.
Price Change % (price_change_pct): min 3, max 100
- Purpose: Focus on stocks that are already moving significantly (≥3% on the day), but exclude extreme outliers that may be too erratic.
- Rationale:
- A minimum of +3% price change means the stock is “in play” with visible momentum, which many day traders specifically seek out.
- These are the names likely to be trending, breaking out, or reacting to news—exactly the conditions day traders look for.
- The max of 100% is a safety cap to avoid the most explosive, potentially unstable moves (e.g., +300% pre-market spikes), which can be extremely risky and often have huge spreads.
Region: United States
- Purpose: Restrict results to U.S.-listed companies to match the user’s request for trades in the US stock market.
- Rationale:
- Ensures you’re only seeing stocks that trade during U.S. market hours, under U.S. market rules.
- Avoids foreign markets with different trading sessions, regulations, and liquidity patterns.
List Exchange: XNYS (NYSE), XNAS (NASDAQ), XASE (AMEX)
- Purpose: Limit results to major U.S. exchanges with generally better liquidity, transparency, and order execution.
- Rationale:
- These exchanges host most of the actively traded U.S. stocks; they are where day traders typically focus.
- Excluding OTC and pink-sheet stocks reduces exposure to illiquid, lightly regulated names that can be harder to trade efficiently, especially for a small account.
Why Results Match Your Day-Trading Request
- The price range ($1–$30) ensures you can buy a usable number of shares with ~$300, so small percentage moves can matter.
- High relative volume and significant daily price change (≥3%) target stocks that are actively moving and liquid—core ingredients for day trades.
- High beta emphasizes volatility, increasing the chance of intraday opportunities.
- U.S. region and major exchanges only align directly with your request for US stock market trades and improve the practicality and safety of execution.
Together, these filters are designed to surface U.S. stocks that are: (1) affordable with your capital, (2) actively traded, and (3) moving enough intraday to be viable for day-trading strategies.
This list is generated based on data from one or more third party data providers. It is provided for informational purposes only by Intellectia.AI, and is not investment advice or a recommendation. Intellectia does not make any warranty or guarantee relating to the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of any third-party information, and the provision of this information does not constitute a recommendation.