Day Trading Stocks

This scan find issues that have a range of 5 percent a day from the previous day in 7 out of the last 10 days. These can be usefull for day trading. You may want to bump the required volume up to one million shares and reduce the minimum price down to $7 to yield more candidates. Typically, this scan as written yields less than 10 hits a night, but then again, that also helps narrow the focus for a day trader.

output = "DayTrade.lst";

IssueType = common;

integer j;
integer n;
n := 0;


if ( close(0) > 30 ) and 
   ( avgvol( 0 , -29 ) >= 500000 )
then
  for j=0 to -9 step -1 do
    if range(j) >= close(j-1) * .05
    then
       n := n + 1;
    endif;
  next j;
endif;

if ( n >= 7 ) then
  println symbol , "," , description;
endif;

Download DTS.EXP (Day Trading Scan)

Double Dipper

The below scan is based on the premise that down turns are eventually followed by rallies. It attempts to buy the dip with two limit orders and expects a retracement back to today's closing price. The first limit order is 3% below today's close and the second limit order is 4% below today's close. After one or both buys are triggered, the system waits until either the target price is hit (today's close) or three days have elapsed, in both cases the trade is exited. The trade may enter both limit order trades on the same day. The scan identifies the two limit buy prices for the list of stocks on the input file.

This system was tested on the Active Trader Standard Stock Portfolio, and the scan is set up to use their list (atssp.lst) as the input file. Their 17 stock input list can also be downloaded below. You can substitute your own input file, or look for a more volatile list of stocks that have a greater average daily range.

Frrom January 1995 through August 2005 their input list generated 4,483 trades, with a win/loss ratio of 60.50%, an average hold time of 2.26 days, and an annualized gain of 9.86 %. The average winning trade was held for 1.78 days and returned 3.03%.

Adapted by Dennis A. Kranyak from the March 2006, Active Trader Magazine, The Trading System Lab.

input = "atssp.lst";
output = "DDip.lst";

daystoload=150;
DaysRequired=150;

Printhdrln "Symbol,Close,EPSRank,QRS,Buy1,Buy2,30adv,Vol,PE,IRLGroup,SharesFloat,SharesShort,Name,InstHold";
if Close(0) > 7  
then
  println Symbol,",",Close(0):7:2,",",EPSRank(0):3:0,",",QRS(0):3:0,",",0.97*Close(0):7:2,",",0.96*Close(0):7:2,
  ",",avgvol(0,-29)/1000:8:0,",",vol(0):8:0,",",PE:5:0,",",IRLsymbol:12,",",Sharesfloat:5:0,",",Shortint:5:0,
  ",",description:-15,",",InstHold:3:2;
 endif;

Download DDS.EXP (Double Dipper Scan) Download atssp.lst (Active Trader Standard Stock Portfolio Input List )