What trades can I do within my budget

Screening Filters

1. Price: $5 – $50

   • Purpose: Find stocks that fit within a $1,000 budget while avoiding very illiquid penny stocks.
   • Rationale:
     • With $1,000, a stock between $5–$50 lets you buy a meaningful position size (e.g., 20–200 shares), which is important for day trading flexibility (scaling in/out, tight risk control).
     • Excluding sub-$5 stocks helps avoid many highly speculative names with poor liquidity and wide spreads that are harder to trade efficiently.

2. Relative Volume ≥ 1.5

   • Purpose: Target stocks trading at least 1.5x their normal volume today.
   • Rationale:
     • Elevated relative volume usually signals unusual interest or catalysts, which often leads to stronger intraday price moves—ideal for day trades.
     • Higher volume also improves liquidity, making it easier to enter and exit positions quickly within the trading day.

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

   • Purpose: Ensure a baseline level of liquidity in dollar terms.
   • Rationale:
     • A minimum of $1M traded per day on average reduces the risk of getting stuck in thinly traded names, which is especially important for active traders with tight stops.
     • With a $1,000 trade size, this ensures your orders are tiny relative to the market’s normal flow, minimizing slippage.

4. RSI Category: Moderate or Overbought

   • Purpose: Focus on stocks currently showing strength or upward momentum.
   • Rationale:
     • Moderate RSI: Often indicates a healthy uptrend that isn’t extremely stretched—potential for continued intraday follow‑through.
     • Overbought RSI: Can indicate strong momentum and active trader interest; these names often have big intraday swings that day traders try to exploit.
     • Together, these categories filter for stocks moving up rather than stuck in low‑energy, sideways action.

5. Price Change % (Today): 2% – 10%

   • Purpose: Capture stocks already moving significantly intraday, but avoid extreme outliers.
   • Rationale:
     • A 2–10% move suggests the stock has real action (volatility and interest), which is what you need for day trades to be worthwhile.
     • Filtering out moves above 10% avoids some of the most parabolic, unstable names, where spreads and reversals can be too wild for a $1,000 account.

6. Region: United States

   • Purpose: Limit results to U.S.-listed companies.
   • Rationale:
     • Aligns with typical access for many retail brokers and ensures standard trading hours, regulations, and reporting.
     • Helps avoid complexities of foreign markets (FX, different settlement, odd hours) that make active day trading harder.

7. Exchange: XNYS, XNAS, XASE (NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX)

   • Purpose: Restrict to major U.S. exchanges.
   • Rationale:
     • These exchanges generally offer better liquidity, tighter spreads, and more reliable data—critical for intraday trading.
     • Excludes OTC and pink sheet names, which can be extremely illiquid and risky for fast trading strategies.

Why Results Match:

• The price range ensures you can buy a usable number of shares with your $1,000 budget without dropping into ultra‑low‑quality penny stocks.
• Relative volume, dollar volume, and exchange filters work together to ensure high liquidity and active trading, which you need to enter and exit quickly as a day trader.
• RSI and 2–10% daily price change specifically target stocks that are already moving up with momentum, giving you candidates that are more likely to offer intraday trading opportunities rather than stagnant names.
• Restricting to U.S. major exchanges keeps the universe to accessible, well‑regulated, actively traded stocks suited to your style and account size.