What should I buy for swing trading

Screening Filters

1. Price: $10 – $150

   • Purpose: Focus on reasonably priced, tradable stocks and avoid very low‑priced “penny stocks” and extremely high-priced names.
   • Rationale:
     • Swing traders typically want enough volatility to make meaningful percentage moves, but also want stocks that aren’t so illiquid or manipulated as many sub-$10 names.
     • Capping at $150 keeps positions accessible for accounts around $1,000—so you can buy multiple shares and even diversify across a few tickers, which is important for swing trading.

2. Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $1,000,000

   • Purpose: Ensure strong liquidity so you can enter and exit swing trades quickly without moving the price too much.
   • Rationale:
     • Dollar volume (price × volume) measures how much money trades in and out of the stock daily.
     • A minimum of $1M screens out thinly traded names with wide bid‑ask spreads, gaps, and slippage—all of which are dangerous for active swing trades.
     • More liquid stocks also tend to respect technical levels (support/resistance, moving averages) more cleanly, which is useful for technical swing setups.

3. Moving Average Relationship: PriceAboveMA20

   • Purpose: Focus on stocks in a short-term uptrend, which is what most swing traders prefer to ride.
   • Rationale:
     • The 20-day moving average (MA20) is a classic swing-trading timeframe—about one trading month.
     • Price trading above its 20-day MA signals a bullish short-term trend rather than a downtrend or chop.
     • This aligns with “buy strength on pullbacks” type strategies: you’re looking for names already trending up, not trying to catch falling knives.

4. RSI Category: Moderate

   • Purpose: Avoid stocks that are extremely overbought or oversold; target names with momentum but still with room to move.
   • Rationale:
     • Extremely high RSI (overbought) often precedes pullbacks; extremely low RSI (oversold) often means high risk of continued weakness.
     • A “moderate” RSI aims for the middle ground:
       • Not so hot that you’re likely buying the top.
       • Not so cold that you’re fighting a strong downtrend.
     • For swing trading, this is a sweet spot: you want a tradable trend that isn’t already exhausted.

5. 1-Month Price Change: +5% to +40%

   • Purpose: Find stocks with clear recent momentum, but filter out those that have already gone parabolic.
   • Rationale:
     • Minimum +5%: Ensures the stock has actually been moving and showing strength—flat or weak names are less attractive for short-term swings.
     • Maximum +40%: Avoids names that have already exploded and may be at risk of sharp reversals or profit-taking.
     • This range targets “healthy” momentum where a trend is established but not yet overextended—ideal for swing entries on dips or consolidations.

6. Exchange: XNYS, XNAS, XASE (NYSE, Nasdaq, NYSE American)

   • Purpose: Limit results to major U.S. exchanges with higher reporting standards, better liquidity, and tighter spreads.
   • Rationale:
     • Stocks on these exchanges tend to have:
       • Better transparency and regulation.
       • More institutional participation.
       • More predictable trading behavior (important for technical swing setups).
     • This excludes many OTC and microcap names where liquidity and price integrity can be problematic for active traders.

Why Results Match Your Swing-Trading Goal

• The screener targets liquid, actively traded U.S. stocks, so you can get in and out of swing trades without major slippage.
• Filters like PriceAboveMA20, RSI = moderate, and 1‑month gain between 5–40% collectively focus on stocks in a solid, but not overextended, uptrend—exactly the type of price action swing traders look to exploit.
• The price range aligns with a smaller account size, allowing you to build meaningful positions and even diversify across several setups instead of being locked into a single expensive stock.

Together, these filters narrow the universe to stocks that have:

• Sufficient liquidity,
• Clear short‑term upward momentum,
• Manageable prices,
  making them well aligned with practical, technically driven swing-trading strategies.