How to Find Consistently Volatile Stocks for Day Trading (Video Tutorial)
Do this once to find a handful of volatile stocks you can day trade throughout the week. The whole process takes about 20 minutes, and your homework is done for the week. No more researching for volatile day trading stocks every day, such as flipping through new highs and lows or a biggest movers list. By watching a handful of these stocks you always have big moves to day trade…especially in the mornings, which is when day traders should be most active anyway.
In the video below, I show you how to find volatile day trading stocks which are likely to see big percentage movements each day over the course of the next week, based on average historic volatility.
This is the method I use to update the Day Trading Stocks Picks each week (the picks include some stocks found using a different method as well).
Watch, learn, enjoy. Resources mentioned in the video are discussed below.
Resources For Finding Volatile Stocks
Volatile day trading stock picks are based on the method(s) described in the video, screened for on StockFetcher.com.
Reasons I like this screening method is covered in Consistent High Volatility Stock Screen For Day Traders. Here is a sample screen/filter you can copy and paste into StockFetcher.com:
show stocks where the average day range (100) is above 4.5%
and Price is between $5 and $150
and Average volume (30) is greater than 4000000
and exchange is not amex
add column Average Volume (30)
add column Average Day Range (30)
What this filter is asking the research engine to do is find stocks that typically move at least 4.5% per day. That’s quite a bit of movement. We are also asking the research to only produce stocks that have a 100 day over 4.5%. So the stocks that show up on this list likely didn’t just move a bunch one day…they tend to move a lot every day. If they have moved, on average, over 4.5% for 100 days, they will probably move a fair bit this week as well. Then next week will run the filter again.
The price filter gets rid of penny stocks, which I don’t like, but you can adjust this filter to find stocks in a price range you like.
The volume criteria make sure that the stock has ample volume for us to trade. On lower-priced stocks often 2 million is enough volume. As the price movements increases, typically we will want more volume to keep the spreads tight and be able to get in and out with ease. I typically like to trade stocks with 4 million or more in average volume.
The criterion “exchange is not amex” excludes ETFs from the results. If you want to include ETFs, delete this line of code.
The add column functions show us how much the average volume and volatility is over the last 30 days.
If you’re a do-it-yourself type person, and like to look for stocks that are moving a lot each day, look into a Finviz Elite subscription. Use it to see what’s moving in the pre-market and during the day, see what stocks are gapping, and run technical filters for stocks breaking out of chart patterns. This is for people who don’t like waiting around for trades, and instead like actively seeking out trades all day long.
Volatile Stock Day Trading Strategies
The above screening method doesn’t tell us how to trade or which direction these stocks are moving. The screen/filter just tells us that these are the stocks that consistently move a lot. As for how to trade, for that we need a trading strategy. For strategies that work well with these types of stocks, see:
- The Strong Trend Reversal Trading Strategy
- How to Day Trade Stocks in 2 Hours or Less
- Truncated Price Swing Trading Strategy for Stocks or Forex
- Trend Trading: How to Spot Trading Opportunities
- Daily Range Day Trading Strategy
- Day Trade Trending Strategy
Day trading volatile stocks isn’t for everyone. Have a plan for how you will trade them, and test out your strategies before trading with real capital. Slippage is possible in these stocks. This isn’t an endorsement for the stocks that show up on the list. Pick a handful that move in a way you like, then trade them all week. Run a new scan each week. Typically I find the same stocks stay on the list week after week…which is a good thing because it shows the scan is producing consistently volatile stocks.
This method is just one option for finding real time volatile stocks for day trading if you don’t want to be constantly researching.