best stocks for short term active trading

seesound · Feb 10, 2006

I am not famaliar with the stocks. Could you suggest dozens of stocks that are suitable for short term active trading? Or where can I find a list of stocks with high volitility that are good candidates for short term trading.

Thanks

siki13 · Feb 10, 2006

I think aapl is the best

BARRELL · Feb 10, 2006

EBAY is good too

QQQQ is not very volatile but imho is a must for daytrader

Steve Tvardek · Feb 10, 2006

Because you are a rookie I would definitely recommend GOOG, PD, VLO and CME. You should be very well equipped to trade these high flyers. They move around so much, imagine all the money you could make.

In case you couldnt tell, I am completely sarcastic. Stay away from actively traded stocks until you learn how to trade. Otherwise you might as well take the cash you have and burn it right now. B/c that, in essense, is what the end result will be if you try and trade these high beta stocks.

Quote from seesound:

I am not famaliar with the stocks. Could you suggest dozens of stocks that are suitable for short term active trading? Or where can I find a list of stocks with high volitility that are good candidates for short term trading.

Thanks

wabrew · Feb 10, 2006

Quote from seesound:

I am not famaliar with the stocks. Could you suggest dozens of stocks that are suitable for short term active trading? Or where can I find a list of stocks with high volitility that are good candidates for short term trading.

Thanks

I agree with Steve T. But if you must....
here is a place to go to get dozens of stocks that may or may not be suitable...
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.scan

seesound · Feb 10, 2006

Thanks, all.

Hi, Steve. I know your concern. Then what stocks do you recommend? I have some trading experience in futures. I just wanna widen my portfolio and at first should get some real experience in stock trading. Previously, I just did not like stocks because i want to be focused.

Thanks

nazzdack · Feb 11, 2006

Confirmation of the Obvious............focus on the higher-volume, lower-priced stocks. That'll give you the best turnover and lowest average trade cost.

AAAintheBeltway · Feb 11, 2006

Quote from seesound:

I am not famaliar with the stocks. Could you suggest dozens of stocks that are suitable for short term active trading? Or where can I find a list of stocks with high volitility that are good candidates for short term trading.

Thanks

I think it depends a lot on what your trading style is. Some people trade the same stocks every day, others focus on stocks that have news or earnings that is causing a price gap. I think it is useful, particularly for futures traders,to try to go with stocks that tend to correlate with the index. That way, you can use your same general approach.

I think if you are planning on actively daytrading, but not scalping, then you want stocks that have a lot of volume, ie> 1.5 million shares per day traded, and decent intraday ranges, perhaps $1 or more. I know a lot of prop traders will disagree and say trade slow movers and try to get $.10-.20.

Obviously, the stocks you trade will change over time. I think some good candidates now are the OIH and its components, such as SLB and HAL, CAT, DE, PD, BRCM, AAPL and SBUX. These all have the potential for large intraday moves, so you must have very good discipline to exit losers quickly.

Trading stocks is a lot different than the futures because it can be much harder to get a fill. I'd advise starting very small, 100 shares, until you have the execution part down cold.