There are thousands of stocks to choose from, some which move very little and some which move a lot.

Day traders can choose any sort of stock they want to day trade, but many choose to trade high volume stocks that are seeing significant price movement. This approach typically requires some research because which stocks are seeing lots of movement may change from day to day or week to week.

If you want to day trade stocks that see the biggest price moves, here are a few ways to find them. Narrowing down the universe of potential day trading stocks requires a stock screener or stock filter.

If you want to trade volatile stocks, with minimal research, run the following criteria on a stock screener each week.

Find Volatile Day Trading Stocks Using These Filters

On the weekend, run the screen again. Create a new filter on StockFetcher. The free version of the software only produces five results, but you only want to pick two or three from the list anyway, so the free version of the software should suffice for most day traders. Adjust any of the criteria to get a list of stocks that is more suited to your day trading strategy or specifications. Construct a list of stocks at night to watch the next day. The list may be composed of stocks that were very volatile during the prior trading session, had the biggest percentage gains or the biggest percentage losses.

This can quickly be done on Finviz. Click the Screener tab, and from the Signal list select Most Volatile, Top Gainers or Top Losers. Under the Filters select Over 1M for Average Volume. Figure 1 shows this filter in action. Increase the volume criteria to reduce the number of stocks on the list. Also, each night or morning note which well-known stocks because they generally have good volume have earnings releases due out.

Wait until after the news is released to day trade the stock; that is when the volatility occurs and when day traders can potentially capitalize. An Earnings Calendar can be found on Yahoo! Finance which gives a list of companies releasing earnings each day.

An alternative is to do some research during the day to find the stocks that are moving the most. One approach is to monitor the Most Volatile, Top Gainers or Top Losers on Finviz. Most brokers and trading platforms will also provide this information in real-time. Note changes in the list throughout the day. Sites like Finviz also provide a list of stocks breaking resistance levels and out of chart patterns.

Most Popular Stocks and ETFs for Day Trading

With a paid subscription, you can monitor for these intra-day charts and breakouts in real-time. This approach requires running one scan on the weekend and then just trading two or three stocks from the list each week.

If you are comfortable with doing a little more research each night, use the daily monitoring approach. Run a screener, each night or morning, for stocks that were most volatile and saw the biggest price moves recently. You may also opt to run a screener during the trading day, to see which stocks are most active in the current session. Search the site GO. Day Trading Trading Systems Basics Trading Psychology Trading Strategies Stock Markets Risk Management Forex Technical Indicators Options Glossary.

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Updated June 13, Monitor Volatile Stocks Intra-Day An alternative is to do some research during the day to find the stocks that are moving the most. Get Daily Money Tips to Your Inbox Email Address Sign Up.

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