Stock Screener: Parameter Settings That Find Tradeable Setups

A stock screener filters thousands of names down to a watchlist. The danger is over-filtering (no results) or under-filtering (200 names you'll never read). The settings below produce a tight, tradeable list for swing setups.

Liquidity filters (always on)

• Average daily volume ≥ 1 million shares over 20 days. Below this, fills slip and spreads widen.
• Average dollar volume ≥ $20 million. A $2 stock doing 1M shares is not liquid enough for size; dollar volume normalizes.
• Price ≥ $5. Sub-$5 names carry regulatory and structural risk (margin restrictions, manipulated floats).

Trend filters

• Price above the 50-day SMA for long setups (below for shorts). Isolates the trend you want to trade.
• 50-day SMA above the 200-day SMA (golden-cross regime). Filters out downtrends and consolidation breakdowns.
• 50-day SMA slope up over 20 sessions. A flat 50-day in a "golden cross" is not a trend; the slope confirms it.

Volatility and setup filters

• ATR(14) / price between 1.5% and 5%. Too low (under 1.5%) = no movement to capture; too high (over 5%) = stop distance eats R/R.
• Relative Strength (RS) rank ≥ 70. Outperformance versus the S&P 500 over 3–6 months. You want leaders, not laggards recovering.
• Distance from 52-week high ≤ 15%. Leaders near highs offer breakout and continuation setups; deep laggards offer only mean-reversion traps.

Pattern-specific layers (add one per scan)

• Breakout watch: price within 3% of the 52-week high, consolidating 3+ weeks in a tight range (weekly range < 8%).
• Pullback watch: pulled back 2–5 ATR from a recent high on declining volume (today's volume < 50-day average), RSI(14) between 40–55.
• Gap-up momentum: gapped up ≥ 2% today on volume ≥ 2x the 50-day average, closing in the upper half of the day's range.

Output discipline

• Cap results at 10–15 names. If your scan returns 60, tighten a parameter (raise RS rank to 80, narrow the distance-from-high to 8%).
• Run the scan end-of-day, not intraday. Intraday screens chase; EOD screens plan.
• Save 2–3 named scans (breakout, pullback, momentum) rather than one mega-scan. Specificity beats generality.

The maintenance rule

Re-test scan parameters quarterly. Markets shift regimes; a 1.5% ATR floor that worked in a vol regime may exclude everything in a quiet tape. Adjust floors to current conditions, but document every change so you know whether performance shifts came from the market or your filter.