Top 50 Stocks To Day Trade, week starting 2006/07/31

Posted on July 31st, 2006
Written by Richard
Posted in: N/A (old archives)

[EDIT: this scan has since evolved, and is now posted weekly to the Stock Market Scans Area ]

This week’s results from my stock screen to help me identify which stocks are worth the most attention. As with last week, here were my criteria (the only thing different this week is that I now take the top two values out, rather than just one):

Stock recently trading between $10 and $80. Below $80 I can buy lots of shares. Below $10 tends to get dangerous, in my opinion, if they also meet the intraday range criteria that I’ll get to in a second.
Stock typically trading at least a million shares a day over the last 10 days. I define “typically” as the average of the volumes with the two highest values taken out. This keeps a short spike from making a stock look too good.
Stock typically trading across at least $1 intraday over the last 10 days. That is, the average of (high – low), with the 2 largest values taken out. As a daytrader, I don’t care about the ATR or the close-to-close range, since by definition I can’t capture overnight gaps. This way, I find stocks that are moving during the day.

This yields about 250 stocks across NYSE and Nasdaq, so I take that output, and retain the top 50 in terms of their daily range. That is the list below. I plan to post an updated list every week. If you think different or more criteria would be better, just say so and I may make adjustments. The only goal is to find stocks that are good for daytrading–beyond that anything goes.

If you are interested, it’s written in haskell and runs on daily data from EODData.com.

I’ve looked at a few free web-based stock screens, and I couldn’t find any that let me filter on criteria like these. Maybe I just never found the right one, but most of them seem to like to filter on P/E or RSI or 3-Month Volume. I just want liquid stocks that move intraday!

This Week’s List

Stock	Typical Volume	Typcial IntraDay Range
APA	4481063	$1.93
ATI	3738150	$3.34
BA	4428400	$2.16
BHI	4550638	$2.87
BIDU	3333975	$4.52
BNI	3527150	$2.47
BTU	5491800	$2.58
CAT	5167575	$1.92
CHRW	1173863	$1.90
CSX	3278850	$1.98
CTX	2234625	$1.92
CYMI	1323913	$2.04
DE	2863538	$2.32
DO	2778388	$3.08
EOG	3020538	$2.43
EXPD	1783638	$2.02
FCX	4481038	$2.47
FORM	1068963	$2.41
GRP	1853588	$1.97
HANS	3520738	$2.23
HES	2747338	$2.30
ICE	1379688	$2.40
JCI	1555975	$1.89
JOYG	2220000	$2.36
LCC	1179313	$1.97
LVS	2511563	$3.49
NE	2442613	$2.80
NIHD	1474663	$1.89
NOV	2723575	$2.18
NTRI	1976688	$2.72
NUE	4690825	$2.20
NYX	1443738	$2.44
OII	1222100	$2.12
RACK	1204675	$2.73
RIG	6005638	$2.36
ROK	1249000	$1.99
RTI	1021113	$2.49
SLAB	1771363	$1.89
SLB	9971300	$2.75
STLD	1755113	$2.76
SU	2274575	$2.41
SUN	1940838	$2.11
TEX	1665925	$2.08
TSO	1392975	$2.39
WCC	1353688	$2.54
WFR	4831963	$2.11
WFT	4259988	$1.91
WHR	1044213	$1.95
WYNN	1134438	$2.71
X	5755350	$2.68

Comments

john

cut and paste version would be just fine too. But I'd like to see the price as I too am leverage-deprived.
richard

@Ugly, sure, no problem. I'll see what removing the $80 cap does to me... I don't have the kind of leverage you do! :-)

I assume people want CSV of just the stock names, and not a CSV version of the table, right?
Ugly

Richard - thanks, man. I may start using your % list instead of the top alpha list for trading. One other thing - I would prefer to see no $80 limit on the top. And as for format, CSV or anything that I can easily copy and paste would be ideal.
Thanks!
John

I like the CSV idea. And sorting by percentage is great. Could you include closing price on the day of the trade? Thanks.
richard

Ok, 100 it is. After looking at them for the last two days, I think I'm partial to the % list over my original one right now. I overdid it, I think, trying to get pure cent movement.

I'll start posting them sorted by percent, as well, so it's easy to just watch like the top 10 if that's all you want to do.

I can also post them in several formats. Like, if people's platforms like comma separated lists, I can put that at the bottom of the post, or something... just tell me what you'd like.
Ugly

Thanks for the suggestions. And thanks Richard for the list by %. If you could post this it would be awesome. How about 100 instead of 50?
Thanks!
John

I use stockfetcher.com. It's about 10 bucks a month. I use it because it has hundreds of premade scans (e.g. crossing 200 day moving average) but more importantly allows me to "roll my own" - EMA(8) crossed over EMA(21) 3 days ago and close is greater than 200 day moving average and shape is a hammer and close is between 9.50 and 85 and average volume(5, 10, 20, 30) is n n1 n2 n3 (all in the same filter) etc etc etc.

Trust me - it permits every possible combination of technical indicator you would care to try. If you read about it somewhere you can do it there.

Also permits backtesting of the filters which is neat but better yet once you get your backtested results you can go in and look at all of the stocks picked during the backtest period (you choose the period).

I don't get anything from anyone using that site on my recommendation but I recommend it highly.
Richard

Incidently, if I change the $1 range criterion so it looks at typical % intraday moves instead, I get this list for this week:

ACI, AFFX, AKAM, AKS, AQNT, ATHR, ATI, BIDU, BMHC, BTU, CAL, CNC, CNX, CYMI, DBRN, ELN, EXP, EXPD, FCL, FORM, HANS, HOTT, ISSX, JBLU, JOYG, KOMG, LEA, LVS, MEE, MRVL, NTRI, NVDA, NVT, PEIX, PLXS, RACK, RBAK, RMBS, RTI, SIMG, SIRF, SLAB, SLW, STLD, TIE, TRID, UAUA, WFR, XMSR, ZRAN

Right off, it's easy to notice stronger Nasdaq presence in this version of the list. Next week's list may be a hybrid set, like, top 50 by %, but which must move by at least 40 cents regardless of price, or something.
nodoodahs

Stockman, cool scanner! Gotta run go play!
Richard

@Stockman, it does seem like one of the better free scans I've seen. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm glad I wrote my own, though... I can try out all kinds of wacky criteria, now! :-)
Stockman222

businessweek.com has an excellent search engine tool powered by Telexscan. It has many free features that includes what you are looking for such as daily range (in $ and %). Here's the link:
http://prosearch.businessweek.com/businessweek/general_free_search.html?mode=advanced
nodoodahs

Ugly,

Honestly, I'm not getting paid for this. But, stockcharts[dot]com with the custom scan can do simple mathematical equations. So you can look for a range times some multiple of the close and convert that to percentages.

If anyone does decide to use them, tho', if you say I "referred" you I could get a free couple of months on my 'scrip. I've been using them for about 4 months now and don't know how I got by without it.
richard

@Ugly: You are right, of course. The reason I scanned for a minimum absolute range is because it's harder for me to catch a move inside a 30 cent range, even if that's a 3% move in the stock.

Maybe I should go by percentages, and then grab the top 50 by volume, or something. Or grab them by $1+ moves, but then cull it down to 50 based on percentages. I'll play with it some, this weekend. Thanks!
richard

@nodoodahs: That's interesting. I was using them to draw P&F charts recently, but I can't access their scans since I am not a member.
nodoodahs

stockcharts[dot]com will allow members to make custom scans. You can scan average volume and average range over a period of time and add a clause for prices, you can even sort by exchange.

I use their charts and really like the features, but your mileage may vary.
Ugly

Thanks for the list. Good idea.
A $1 intraday range for a $10 stock is a lot different than a $1 range for an $80 stock - is there any way to get the list by percent?
thanks

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© 2010 Richard Todd. I am not a financial advisor, and nothing on the site should be considered investment advice or actionable recommendations. I'm just an individual, saying what I think, and sharing my experiences.

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Top 50 Stocks To Day Trade, week starting 2006/07/31

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