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    How to Scan for Range-Bound Stocks

    December 21, 2024

    I got an email a little while ago asking me how to find range-bound stocks.  I started my response with 

     I don't have a direct way to do that. Range bound could be very subjective...  

    But as I was typing that I remembered what I often tell people (and what's in the getting started tips) about SwingTradeBot's scans -- check the "Scans by Category / Type" page & see what matches up with your trading style.  So I went and looked (because I don't always remember all the scans I've created over the years) and some categories popped out to me: 

    • Basing Scans - all of the scans there could fit the bill.  I'd start with the Bollinger Band Squeeze scan.
    • Low Volatility Scans - There are 4 Bollinger Band based scans and the "3 Weeks Tight" scan.
    • Range Contraction Scans - mostly overlaps with the above two categories
    • And after seeing the Moving Average Scans category I remembered one of those in particular -- the Timeframe Trends scan (see my blog post about that scan) which allows you to do something like "find stocks above their 200 DMA but flat (close to) with respect to their 50 & 10 DMAs"
    I listed those in my email response and finished with this:

    You could try searching for stocks crossing a certain moving average -- which average is again subjective and would vary based on the timeframe you care about. Filtering for stocks rated C might also help as A & B rated stocks tend to be ones in some kind of uptrend... (and D & F rated tend to be in some kind of downtrend)

    You can also play around with the "price vs moving average" filters on any scan:
    Price-vs-moving-averages-filters.png 73.83 KB
    And you could also get creative with the Combo Scan and/or the Back-to-Back scans.  One idea that comes to mind is doing a back-to-back scan for stocks which have crossed a moving average 2 or 3 days in a row.

    So there are potentially many ways to find range-bound (non-trending) stocks with SwingTradeBot.   If anyone has other ideas please leave them in the comments.

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