This list should ideally return stocks that have moved at least 5 percent
every day for the past 50 days. It is important to use a minimum of 50 days,
though 75 or 100 will produce even more reliable results overall. Results of
this magnitude will show that the stock in question has moved a significant
amount over the past few months which means it is likely to continue to do
so for the near future. The second criterion will determine the amount you
should be willing to pay per share and can be altered based on your
personal preferences.
The third criterion will determine the level
of volume that you find
acceptable for the given timeframe. The example will look for volume that
is greater than four million shares within the past month. From there, it will
eliminate leverage ETFs from the results which can be eliminated if you are
interested in trading ETFs. Finally, the add column will show the list of
stocks with the largest amount of volume and the greatest overall amount of
movement. Selecting these columns will then rank the results from least to
greatest based on the criteria provided.
Monitor regularly: Alternately, you may
want to do a daily search to
determine the stocks that will experience the greatest range of movement in
the coming hours. To do so, you will want to create a new list of stocks
every evening to ensure that you will be ready to go when the market opens.
This list can then be made up of stocks that have shown a higher volatility
in the previous day either in terms of gains or in terms of losses. Adding in
volume to these criteria will then help to make sure the results will likely
continue to generate the kind of volume that
day trading successfully
requires. Useful filters for this search include an average volume that is
greater than one million and the more you increase the minimum volume
the fewer results you’ll see.
When
using this strategy, it is especially important to pick out any stocks
that are likely to see major news releases before the next day as these are
almost guaranteed to make the price move in a number of random
directions before ultimately settling down. As such, it is often best to wait
until after the details of the release are known and you can more accurately
determine what the response is, though not so long that you miss out on the
combination of high volume and high volatility. If you don’t already have
an
earnings calendar bookmarked, the one available for free from Yahoo
Finance! Is well respected.
Monitor intraday volatility: Another option that is worth considering is
doing your researching during the day as
a means of determining which
stocks are experiencing the greatest overall amount of movement at the
moment.