TL;DR
- To find stocks to day trade each morning, scan premarket for stocks with a catalyst and unusual volume, check which ones are genuinely strong, cut the list to 3 to 5 names, mark your levels, and wait for the open to confirm the strength before you trade.
- A scanner only finds candidates. You still need a plan, levels and risk rules before any of them becomes a trade.
- Pros scan for liquidity + volatility + a reason to move (catalyst).
- Know what strength looks like before you scan: strong relative to the market, high relative volume, a clean daily chart, and respect for levels. The biggest gainer is often not the strongest stock.
- Use two layers: broad market scan → tight pre-market shortlist (3 to 5 names).
- Your scanner should match your style: momentum/opening range traders need gap + volume + relative volume more than anything.
- Add filters to reduce noise: price range, float (optional), average volume, spread, % change, and pre-market volume.
- Confirm strength after the bell: VWAP behavior, holding highs and strength vs SPY decide whether a premarket mover deserves a trade.
- Your edge comes from what you do after the scan: mark levels, write scenarios, and trade only A+ setups.
Most traders use scanners like a slot machine.
They hit “run,” watch tickers fly by, and chase whatever looks exciting.
Professionals use scanners like an air traffic control tower:
- identify what’s moving
- understand why it’s moving
- map levels
- wait for a clean setup
That is how to find strong stocks to watch each morning without chasing whatever is already flying. Here is how to set up the scanner behind it, step by step.
Step 1: Understand what a scanner is (and what it’s not)
A scanner is not a strategy.
A scanner is a filtering tool.
Its job is to answer one question:
“Which stocks deserve my attention today?”
Not:
- “Which stock will go up?”
- “Which ticker can I FOMO into?”
If you’re trying to use scanners to predict, you’ll end up chasing.
What does a strong stock actually look like?
Before you build a single filter, get clear on what you are hunting for. Most traders confuse movement with strength. A stock can be moving fast and still be weak. A stock can be calm and still be very strong.
Strength is controlled, repeatable behavior. Four things usually show it.
Relative strength vs the market
Relative strength compares a stock’s performance with a market index. Fidelity describes the relative strength comparison as a ratio of one security’s price to a base index, and the line rises when the stock is doing better than that index.
For a day trader, the plain-language version is enough: watch SPY, the ETF that tracks the S&P 500. A strong stock:
- holds green while SPY pulls back
- reclaims VWAP quickly after a dip
- refuses to break its key support levels
If SPY is choppy and a stock is holding its highs, that is real strength.
One trap: relative strength and RSI are different tools. RSI is a momentum oscillator that looks at one stock on its own. Relative strength is a comparison against a benchmark, usually the market.
Relative volume beats raw volume
Raw volume alone misleads. A big, liquid name can trade millions of shares and still be having a completely normal day.
Relative volume fixes that. It compares the volume traded so far with the average volume at the same point in past sessions, so a reading of 2.0 means the stock is trading twice its usual volume for that time of day. That is the signal that something is different today.
Volume confirms interest. Price confirms direction.
Clean structure on the daily chart
The strongest stocks rarely move randomly. On the daily chart they usually show:
- clear support and resistance
- trend continuation or a break of multi-day highs
- clean consolidation zones
- room to the next resistance
If the daily chart looks messy, intraday execution turns into guesswork.
Respect for key levels
Strong stocks react to key levels:
- pre-market high and low
- VWAP
- prior day high
- whole and half dollar levels
That reaction is where the opportunity lives.
Three look-alikes for strength
The biggest gainer. A stock up huge premarket is often extended, thin, crowded, and prone to sharp reversals. Big percentage gainers attract emotion first and opportunity second.
Social media hype. If you’re seeing a ticker everywhere at the open, you’re late. The SEC’s investor education site, Investor.gov, tells investors to use extreme caution when acting only on what they read on social media, and notes that it can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon.
Random volatility. Fast candles without structure give you poor entries, slippage, and emotional exits. Pros trade controlled momentum and leave the chaos alone.
Once you define strength this way, your list shrinks and your focus improves. Your scanner can’t see all four strength signals. It narrows the market to names worth checking, and the four checks above decide which ones make your list.
Step 2: The pro criteria (what we’re actually scanning for)
A “good” day trading stock usually has 3 things:
1) Liquidity
You want smooth fills and tight spreads.
- Higher average volume
- Consistent trading activity
- Tighter bid/ask
2) Volatility
No volatility = no opportunity.
- Big pre-market range
- Clean intraday movement
- Enough ATR (daily range) to matter
3) A reason to move (catalyst)
This is the part most beginners ignore.
Catalysts include:
- earnings
- guidance
- analyst upgrades/downgrades
- FDA/biotech news
- macro headlines
- sector sympathy
When you combine liquidity + volatility + catalyst, you get the cleanest momentum.
Step 3: Build your scanner stack (3 scanners you actually need)
Three scanners cover the whole morning routine.
Scanner A: “Pre-market movers” (your daily starting point)
Purpose: find what’s active right now.
Good filters (generic / platform-agnostic):
- % Change (pre-market): +3% to +20% (adjust based on market conditions)
- Pre-market volume: 50k+ (more if you prefer only high-quality names)
- Price: $2 to $50 (or $5 to $100 if you want cleaner liquidity)
- Avg daily volume: 500k+ (or 1M+ for more stability)
- Spread: tight enough that entries aren’t a tax (platform-dependent; use judgment)
Output: 20 to 100 tickers (that’s fine, we filter next).
Scanner B: “Relative volume leaders” (the quality upgrade)
Purpose: find stocks trading above their normal pace.
Filters:
- Relative volume: 2.0+ (or 3.0+ in slow markets)
- % Change: positive (or above a threshold)
- Avg daily volume: 500k+
Output: fewer names, higher quality.
Scanner C: “Continuation candidates” (clean second-day setups)
Purpose: find stocks that ran yesterday and still have juice.
Filters:
- Yesterday % change: strong (platform-specific)
- Today pre-market activity: present (volume + range)
- Price above key moving averages (optional)
Output: names that often provide cleaner, more technical setups.
Step 4: The 5-minute pro workflow (what to do after the scan)
Scanning is step zero.
The edge starts now.
Once you have your list, you do this every morning:
1) Cut the list to 3 to 5 names
If you try to watch 15 tickers, you’ll miss everything. To rank your shortlist into tiers, see how to build a high-probability watchlist.
2) Identify the catalyst (one sentence)
If you can’t explain why it’s moving, you’ll get trapped.
3) Mark the only levels that matter
Minimum level map:
- pre-market high
- pre-market low
- yesterday high/low (or key daily levels)
- VWAP zone (intraday)
4) Write scenarios
Example:
- “If it holds above pre-market high and volume confirms → I look for ORB / pullback entry.”
- “If it reclaims VWAP after flush → I look for reversal only if the level holds.”
- “If it’s choppy / no volume → no trade.”
This is how pros avoid improvising.
Step 5: How do you confirm strength after the open?
The scan and the plan give you candidates. The open tells you which ones are real. Some stocks look strong premarket and fall apart in the first minutes, so wait for confluence, where several signals line up at once.
VWAP behavior
VWAP is the session’s average price weighted by volume, and it resets at the open. TradingView’s documentation reads price above VWAP as an intraday uptrend and price chopping above and below it as a sideways market.
Strong stocks tend to:
- hold above VWAP
- reclaim it quickly after a pullback
- use it as support
Weak stocks reject VWAP again and again, or lose it and never get it back. Keep in mind that VWAP is an average, so it lags price.
Holding highs (making them is easy)
Anyone can push price higher for a minute. Strong stocks hold their gains. Look for higher lows and shallow pullbacks that stay inside a tight range. A stock that keeps tagging new highs and fading straight away is being sold into.
Strength vs SPY
This is the relative strength check from earlier, run live. Pull up SPY next to your stock. If SPY dips and your stock stays green, it is leading. If it moves in step with the market, it gives you no extra edge.
Time of day
The first minutes after the bell are unusually messy. Even the SEC leaves the first five minutes out of its own market-activity sample to avoid the quirks of the open. The strongest stocks hold through the first pullback and attract volume on dips as well as on breakouts. If the strength disappears the moment the market opens, it was never there.
A clean risk-to-reward
Strength without structure is useless. Before you trade, you should see a defined entry, a logical stop, and a target that justifies the risk. If you can’t define the risk easily, skip the trade, no matter how strong the stock looks.
Before you trade a premarket mover, check:
- it holds above VWAP or reclaims it quickly
- it holds its highs after the first push
- it stays green when SPY dips
- it survives the first pullback after the open
- you can name the entry, the stop and the target
One signal can lie. When volume, VWAP, price action and market context all agree, you have a stock that meets the checklist in your plan, and you still size the trade for the chance you are wrong.
Step 6: Don’t let the scanner create bad behavior
Scanners create two classic beginner problems:
Problem 1: Chasing
You see green candles and feel late.
So you chase.
Fix:
- Wait for a defined setup before you enter.
- If you missed the move, you wait for the next clean entry.
Problem 2: Overtrading
The scanner keeps feeding you “opportunities.”
You keep clicking.
Fix:
- Max trades per day (2 to 4)
- A+ setups only
- Hard max loss
If you struggle with overtrading, read this next: How to Stop Overtrading in Day Trading.
Step 7: Example scanner settings (by trader type)
If you trade the open (most momentum traders)
Prioritize:
- gap %
- pre-market volume
- relative volume
- clean range and levels
Keep your universe tight.
Three great tickers beat a hundred average ones.
If you trade small caps
Be stricter about:
- spreads
- halts
- liquidity
Small caps can move fast, and punish faster.
If you trade large caps
Prioritize:
- clean daily trends
- sector strength
- news-driven volume
You’re often trading more “technical” movement, with less chaos.
The real pro secret: your scanner should feed your routine
A scanner is only useful if it supports a repeatable process.
A short list of better stocks, executed cleanly, beats a long list of average ones.
If you want to watch this process run live, with the reasoning explained as it happens, that is what the TradeMomentum chatroom teaches:
- nightly watchlists
- pre-market plans
- live sessions that explain the reasoning behind each trade
- rule-based risk management
Frequently asked questions
How do I find stocks to day trade each morning?
Run a premarket scan for stocks with a catalyst, a meaningful gap, and high relative volume. Check which ones are strong relative to the market with a clean daily chart, cut the list to 3 to 5 names, mark pre-market high and low, the prior day’s levels and VWAP, and then wait for the open to confirm the strength before you take a trade.
What makes a stock strong in day trading?
A strong stock outperforms the market (it holds up when SPY pulls back), trades on high relative volume, has a clean daily chart with room to move, and respects key levels like VWAP and the pre-market high. A big percentage gain on its own does not make a stock strong.
Do I need special scanners to find strong stocks?
No. Scanners A and C only need filters for % change, volume and price. Scanner B adds a relative volume filter, so use it if your tool offers one. If it doesn’t, check relative volume on the chart instead: TradingView has a built-in relative volume indicator. What you do with the list after the scan matters more than which tool produced it.
This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Trading involves significant risk and may not be suitable for all traders.
