The Best Penny Stock Screener Settings for Day Trading
Your screener settings determine what stocks you see -- and what you miss. Here are the exact filters that work for small cap day trading.
The Best Penny Stock Screener Settings for Day Trading
A stock screener is only as useful as the filters you put into it. Set them too loose and you're drowning in 200 tickers, most of which are noise. Set them too tight and you miss every good setup of the day.
The sweet spot is a focused filter set that gives you 5-15 high-probability stocks each morning -- enough to pick from, not so many that you can't research each one. Here are the settings that actually work.
The Core Filter Set
These five filters form the foundation of any serious penny stock scanner setup:
1. Price: $0.50 - $10.00
The floor of $0.50 eliminates sub-penny stocks, which are overwhelmingly scams, pump-and-dumps, or companies so far gone that no technical analysis applies. They also have terrible spreads that eat your profits.
The ceiling of $10 keeps you in the small cap / penny stock range where the biggest percentage moves happen. Stocks above $10 can still be great trades, but the dynamics are different -- they tend to have larger floats and less volatile moves.
Pro tip: Some traders narrow this to $1.00 - $5.00 for the most explosive setups. Others widen it to $0.50 - $20.00 if they also trade mid-cap momentum. Adjust based on your strategy and risk tolerance.
2. Float: Under 50 Million Shares
Float is the number of shares available for trading. Lower float = less supply = bigger price moves when demand arrives.
- Under 10M float: Extreme mover territory. These can run 50-200% in a day but can also reverse just as fast. High reward, high risk.
- 10M-30M float: The sweet spot for most day traders. Enough liquidity to enter and exit, but still low enough for meaningful moves.
- 30M-50M float: Moderate moves. These work better for slightly larger positions with tighter stops.
3. Volume: Minimum 200,000 Shares
You need liquidity to trade safely. A stock with 50,000 shares traded has wide bid-ask spreads and makes it hard to exit at your planned price. 200,000 is the minimum for most day traders; many prefer 500,000+.
This filter alone eliminates most of the garbage -- stocks that are technically moving but have no real participation.
4. Relative Volume (RVOL): Above 2.0
RVOL above 2.0 means the stock is trading at least twice its normal volume for that time of day. This is the signal that something unusual is happening: a catalyst dropped, institutional interest showed up, or retail momentum is building.
During pre-market (7-9:30 AM), use RVOL > 1.5 since volume is naturally lower. After the open, tighten to RVOL > 2.0 or even > 3.0 to focus on the strongest setups.
5. % Change: Above 5% from Previous Close
This filter ensures you're looking at stocks already in motion. A stock up 5% with high RVOL and low float has momentum behind it. A stock flat on the day, even with decent volume, isn't giving you the intraday volatility you need.
SNACS's scanner supports all of these filters -- and 50+ more -- running in real-time across 2,500+ tickers. Unlike most screeners that require manual refreshes, every filter applies continuously, so your results update the moment a stock crosses your thresholds. You can save multiple filter presets with custom color coding, letting you switch between your pre-market, intraday, and reversal setups with one click.
Pre-Market vs. Intraday Settings
Your filter set should evolve throughout the trading session:
Pre-Market (7:00 - 9:30 AM)
| Filter | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | $0.50 - $10.00 |
| Pre-market Volume | > 50,000 shares |
| RVOL | > 1.5 |
| % Change | > 5% from prev close |
| Float | Under 50M |
Pre-market volume thresholds are lower because total participation is lower. A stock with 100K shares traded in pre-market might be the most active penny stock of the morning.
Intraday (9:30 AM - 4:00 PM)
| Filter | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | $0.50 - $10.00 |
| Volume | > 500,000 shares |
| RVOL | > 3.0 |
| % Change | > 10% from prev close |
| Float | Under 30M |
After the open, tighten everything. You want only the strongest movers -- stocks where the volume and momentum are undeniable.
SNACS handles this naturally -- you can create separate saved scans for each session and switch between them instantly. The platform also tracks relative volume calculated against the same time of day, not just the daily average, so your RVOL filter is accurate whether you're scanning at 8 AM or 2 PM.
Advanced Filters Worth Adding
Once you're comfortable with the core set, these additional filters help refine your results:
Gap Up %: Filter for stocks that gapped up at the open (e.g., gap > 5%). Gap-ups with volume often have sustained momentum for the first 30-60 minutes.
Sector/Industry exclusion: Consider excluding biotech if you don't trade binary catalyst events, or exclude OTC stocks if you only trade listed securities.
Average True Range (ATR): ATR measures typical daily price range. Filtering for ATR > $0.50 ensures the stock has enough volatility to be worth trading.
Short Interest: Stocks with high short interest (> 15% of float) combined with high RVOL could signal a short squeeze setup.
What NOT to Filter For
A few common mistakes:
Don't filter for specific technical patterns. Pattern recognition should happen after a stock hits your scanner, not as a scanner filter. Automated "cup and handle" or "bull flag" detectors are unreliable and miss more setups than they catch.
Don't filter by market cap alone. Market cap is a useful rough guide, but float is far more important for determining how a stock moves intraday. A $50M market cap stock with a 5M float trades very differently than one with a 40M float.
Don't use too many filters. Every additional filter eliminates stocks. With 6-7 filters, you might get zero results on quiet market days. Start with the core five and add selectively.
The Bottom Line
The best screener settings are the ones you understand, trust, and review regularly. Start with the core five filters above, spend a few weeks observing what the scanner surfaces, and adjust based on what you find.
Your scanner is your first filter -- not your only one. It narrows thousands of stocks down to a manageable list. From there, you do the work: checking catalysts, analyzing the chart, planning the trade, and executing with discipline.
SNACS's real-time scanner gives you the filter engine, the SEC research tool helps you validate catalysts and check for dilution red flags, and the trading journal tracks which setups actually produce profits over time. Use your scanner data to refine your filters around real edge -- not a generic template from the internet.