ThinkorSwim Most Volatile Stocks Scanner

[LuckyPlayer2]

First off, I’m very appreciative of this community. I’ve dabbled in writing scripts over the past year but am rusty and seeking a specific scan for ThinkOrSwim. I want to search for the most volatile stocks in a 1 minute timeframe. I don’t care about daily ranges (which is ATR default setting). I also don’t particularly care if the stock is moving up or down. I just want to find wide-range candlesticks on the shortest timeframe & the ability to categorize stocks on my watchlist by most volatile or highest ATR on the 1 minute timeframe.

Is this possible? Has this already been posted somewhere else? Sorry if my request is redundant, I searched about the site and found some nice indicators & scans but nothing that m accomplishes the specifics of what I’m looking for.
Thank you all and happy trading!!

 

[XeoNoX]

That can be done with the built in scanner, change is greater than xzy percent or you can do it my net change and set aggregation to 1 minute, keep in mind TOS updates about once every 3-7 minutes, if you want real time second by second live scans you will have to use another service

 

[LuckyPlayer2]

That can be done with the built in scanner, change is greater than xzy percent or you can do it my net change and set aggregation to 1 minute, keep in mind TOS updates about once every 3-7 minutes, if you want real time second by second live scans you will have to use another service

I appreciate the reply but not sure I follow. Perhaps I could search for largest gap between candle high & candle low? but I’m not sure how I would customize a scan or watchlist that prioritizes stocks with the widest range on 1 minute bars.

 

[XeoNoX]

@LuckyPlayer2

plot scan = high-low > 1;

change "1" to whatever your interpretation of "widest range" is

 

[LuckyPlayer2]

@XeoNoX Thank you sir, I think I’m following along better now and this is something I can work with. Much appreciated!

 

[Slippage]

The largest $ range will likely give you just the highest priced stocks. AMZN's first candle in the last session had a range over $8. AMZN was not in play for the day. TLRY's first candle was $1. TLRY was in play. If you use the highest % instead of highest $ it will give you just penny stocks. If you really want to use a candle's range your best bet is probably to compare the True Range (so it includes the gap) of the first candle it to the Average True Range, calculating how much it is above average. That will still favor low priced stocks, though.

I'm curious. Are you new to choosing stocks for the day or are you exploring ways to find movers after the open that didn't meet your criteria before the open?

 

[LuckyPlayer2]

The largest $ range will likely give you just the highest priced stocks. AMZN's first candle in the last session had a range over $8. AMZN was not in play for the day. TLRY's first candle was $1. TLRY was in play. If you use the highest % instead of highest $ it will give you just penny stocks. If you really want to use a candle's range your best bet is probably to compare the True Range (so it includes the gap) of the first candle it to the Average True Range, calculating how much it is above average. That will still favor low priced stocks, though.

I'm curious. Are you new to choosing stocks for the day or are you exploring ways to find movers after the open that didn't meet your criteria before the open?

My premarket scanners are good, as well as early day. But I typically sort by volume so the same tickers stay on top of my lists all day even if their move is over and done with. I’m looking for a scan later in the day that identifies current stocks that our volatile to try and scalp wide range bars. Not even sure if it’s a viable strategy tbh. Just want to scan for something besides %gainers & volume.

 

[Slippage]

My premarket scanners are good, as well as early day. But I typically sort by volume so the same tickers stay on top of my lists all day even if their move is over and done with. I’m looking for a scan later in the day that identifies current stocks that our volatile to try and scalp wide range bars. Not even sure if it’s a viable strategy tbh. Just want to scan for something besides %gainers & volume.

I see. I had a scan that watched for volume and price surges that caught some early afternoon breakouts in the past. That's fewer results than being able to just go pick something that is moving, though.

It looked for volume on a 3m candle to spike 500% of the average of the last x number of candles and it looked for a similar price spike with movement some multiple of ATR. I stopped trading the entire day so I deleted that scan. My saved scan list is huge. The following is criteria someone gave me a while back for the volume part of Trade Ideas scanner for surging stocks. I never got around to trying it. "volume in 1 min is 600%, volume in 5 min is 300%"

 

[Slippage]

Some of the built in volatility measures might be worth trying to scan for but I'm not sure how fast they update. Vol Index, Vol Sizzle, Sizzle Index. They're probably based on the day. Another option is ImpVolatility. There's a lower study you can put on a chart to get a feel for the numeric ranges and movements. Scanning using that study should let you set the timeframe and then you can look for high numbers or big increases.

 

[Slippage]

For what it's worth, I took a look at these stats the other day out of curiosity. The only built-in volatility measure that looked immediately relevant was actually an easy/lazy scan to create. In Stock Hacker, I loaded the built in scan Top 10 -> Top 10 Volatility Increase. I changed the time period on the custom study script they have in there from D to 15 minutes. I clicked through the first couple results and they were moving well enough to trade.