Identifying Best Stocks/Scanner/Gapups for Day Trading

Krish_Jags

New member
VIP
Hi guys -


I joined this forum and it was very helpful. Thanks for all the contributors from leader board especially “Ben”. Lot of useful info in forum.


I am new to stocks trading and its been 1 month so far I started trading stocks. I tried different ways from different stock alerts providers to buy/sell stocks, but they are not much helpful or not even close to info I learnt from this group.


So far - I learnt about when to buy/sell stocks, based on indicators strategies provided in this forum. But sometimes the stocks I sold will take a swing on same day with in minutes or hours and rise to even more profits.I feel bad for selling early.

  1. I am curious to know if there is any script that can hint me about stock possibly go further up based on patterns or study?
  2. Most of my time goes away by researching what stocks to buy. I have multiple scanners/filters in my TOS platform which I got, but its little confusing to go over all the scanners I have and identifying each stock and doing research on each of the stock from each of the scanner/filter list. Is there a best scanner script that can help me to identify stocks that can take best swing or best gap up along with labels or indicators pls? This will help me a lot as beginner.

I really appreciate your help pls. I am interested in Day Trading @BenTen @tomsk @horserider @markos or anyone who can help me with my request pls.
 
@Krish_Jags - never an easy answer to your questions, but, my very simple approach is to just stay with FAANG + BA + VIRT

imo, endlessly scanning for stocks I dont understand or never heard of, seems silly when the mkt favorites provide endless opportunities.

As fir missing out, FOMO is the greatest waste of time. If I capture some % of the move, I dont really care - i see this as a store where you buy and sell inventory all day and have an idea what price you want. And each day start fresh. I think Walmart used to have rules where they sold inventory at 15% markup and Waltons became very very rich.

I'm sure the gurus here will offer alot more and better advice.
 
I agree with @codydog; analyzing, and becoming an expert on a limited set of stocks is a better use of time versus endlessly scanning for stocks.

Familiarization with the trending patterns of what is being traded is helpful in determining the optimal entry and exit points.
That said: I was you.
Jumping into stocks that "I thought" were positioned perfectly but jumping out at the first sign of trouble. Only for the stock to then go on a stupendous rally. I feel your frustration.

Codydog said it best: Don't scan and chase the perfect entry point. Nor beat yourself up for not exiting at the exact high.
Strong trending days will present endless trading opportunities to jump in on your few select stocks. It is a fallacy that there are perfect entry and exit points.
VIP-ers here is the bible for trend trading: https://usethinkscript.com/threads/automated-trend-line-drawing.18181/
As long as the trade is profitable, whether you got in at the beginning or middle matters not.
Learning to read price action, candles patterns, trend, etc... while making a profit is a greater priority than the quest for the perfect stock to trade at the optimal entry point.

With more and more experience, you will get the feeling for trading days and the best trading hours in those days; which will improve your exits.

Where to start:
The blackFLAG FTS - SwingArm Trend Indicator using ATRTrailing Stop and Fibonacci Retracements thread is awesome to read through.
The strategy itself is not one of the best; BUT BUT there are daytrading explanations for:
  • what and why certain studies/indicators are important
  • the proper use of support and resistance
AND most importantly
- the need to do multi-timeframe analysis to time your exits and entries.

Once you have absorbed everything in that huge thread and have a handle on the basics involved with daytrading.
Then here is a simple trend-following daytrading strategy.
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/traderoracle-method-for-thinkorswim.17127/
Trend-following will not make you rich. But it is low-risk and this strategy will expose you to price-action, chart reading and candle patterns; all of which are integral to whatever daytrading style you graduate to next.

I know no one that is crewing on maxi-racers that didn't start out in a dinghy.
Start trading with your small corral of known stocks with known behaviors before jumping into the whole universe.

Soon,
you will go from this ------> to this
bAUatdP.png
......
chG5exx.png

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@joe362
It should be noted that research does not support the idea of profiting at daytrading by scanning the universe of stocks for equities that have the perfect entry point.

1. Over 50% of the stocks out there are dogs! No matter how lovely your 5min chart looks; those dogs are not going to trend.
2. Daytrades are about entering/exiting the same day; sometimes the same hour, given that most daytrading occurs in the 1st and last hour of the day. If you spend most of your time scanning and analyzing what to trade, you miss the window of when to trade.

Daytrading is being able to recognize strong trending market days, combined with trading your small corral of high-value instruments (no dogs allowed). When you have these two criteria met, any oscillator that is trending between its midpoint and oversold will alert you to profitable entry.

You have asked about scanning almost every oscillator and trend/momentum study on the forum.
All the studies that you have been asking about can be used in the scanner.

As far as your search for the holy grail. It doesn't exist. But that doesn't mean members have not tried. Here are the member contributions to "Day/Swing Strategies".
Before you ask: Yes, "most" can be used in a scanner. ;)
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/profitable-day-trading-strategy-for-thinkorswim-users.2016/
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/a-simple-day-trading-strategy-for-beginners.46/
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/...wings-gapups-for-day-trading.2354/#post-25913
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/best-swing-trading-indicators-for-thinkorswim.182/
https://usethinkscript.com/p/best-scalping-indicators-for-thinkorswim/
Good Luck.
 
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Need Help for Day Trading Scanner - What indicator/market condition be used to scan for day-trades?

I am attempting to get back to DayTrading after having success with SwingTrading, but I am having trouble producing an effective scanner. What indicator may help me identify stocks in the premarket open?

1. Should I focus on Implied Volatility, OnBalance Volume, Two Line Cross, or something totally different?

2. What time frame should I set for the indicator D, 4h, 1hr, 30min, 15min?

Ive been using the following scanners with some moderate success, but the results are usually limited and the success rate is still not great
 

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Last edited by a moderator:
Need Help for Day Trading Scanner - What indicator/market condition be used to scan for day-trades?

I am attempting to get back to DayTrading after having success with SwingTrading, but I am having trouble producing an effective scanner. What indicator may help me identify stocks in the premarket open?

1. Should I focus on Implied Volatility, OnBalance Volume, Two Line Cross, or something totally different?

2. What time frame should I set for the indicator D, 4h, 1hr, 30min, 15min?

Ive been using the following scanners with some moderate success, but the results are usually limited and the success rate is still not great

You can start here:
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/...anner-gapups-for-day-trading.2354/#post-25913
 

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