How To Find Good Penny Stocks – Before The Big Move

Learn how to find good penny stocks before they make a big move. This requires a good penny stock screener. So I researched the top penny stock screeners, and the best one is covered here.

As well as a review, I give examples of good penny stock alerts and possible trades.

What is a Penny Stock?

Before we start let’s clearly define exactly what is a penny stock.

Most people assume a penny stock is a stock trading below $1. But the official definition by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines a penny stock as any stock below $5.

This is the definition we will use going forward, so don’t be surprised to see stocks above a $1. The various stock screener settings will be anything below $5.

Finding Good Penny Stocks With The Best Penny Stock Screener

Let’s not waste time like some reviews; the best penny stock screener in my opinion is Trade Ideas. The rest of the review will explain why.

Try Trade Ideas with Promo Code SST15 to get 15% off the first month or first year of your subscription.

Note: All of the alerts and chart examples were taken over a 2 week period.
Monday 10^th May 2021 to Friday 21^st May 2021.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Trade Ideas is conveniently divided into many stock screener channels. We will be mainly focusing on the penny stock screener channel and the biotech stock screener channel, as many penny stocks are in the biotech sector.

Penny Stock Trading Strategies

Trade Ideas comes with many penny stock trading strategies already setup for you. However, you can easily create your own. For this review I’m going to use their trading strategies as I feel they have already done a great job. Why reinvent the wheel.

In the above screenshot you can see just some of the penny stock screener trading strategies alerting during a 30 minute window. The various trading strategies are listed under the ‘Strategy Name’ column.

You can easily change the trading strategies you want to use by right-clicking on the strategies column.

The above screenshot was taken during pre-market hours, and as one of the trading strategies includes ‘Pre Market High’, we can see those alerts coming through in real time.

A short cut to viewing all of the trading strategies is by right-clicking on a ‘strategy’ and selecting ‘configure’.

The ‘Strategies’ tab in the screenshot above shows just some of the strategies that come preset with Trade Ideas. All you need to do is change the price range to below $5 for penny stocks.

Penny Stock Screener Settings

Trade Ideas comes with many penny stock screener settings already setup for you. However, you can easily change them, or create your own.

You can change any of the strategy settings by right-clicking on a ‘strategy’ and selecting configure.

In the above screenshot we can see the ‘Summary’ tab for the ‘High Volume Upward Move’ penny stock screener settings.

You can tweak the filter settings as much as you like via the various tabs shown in the screenshot. I’m not going to go into detail in this article, but know the option is there for you.

Not only can you change any of the stock screener settings, you can remove or add as many filters as you like. You really are spoilt for choice, but keep it simple.

Notice in the screenshot the filter on volume for the last minute, and 5 minutes. You can also filter on 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and daily volume. This precise flexibility makes Trade Ideas standout from most of the other stock screeners I tested.

Biggest Penny Stock Gainers Today

As well as the ‘Multi-Strategy’ window, you can also create ‘Top Lists.’

For example, lists for the biggest penny stock gainers today, or losers if you like to short them. Better still you can combine them both in one list.

In the above screenshot the ‘biggest penny stock gainers today’ has been combined with the ‘biggest penny stock losers today’.

To show the top penny stock gainers or losers, just sort by the ‘percent change’ columns.

Biggest Penny Stock Gainers Last 5 Days

As well as the ‘biggest penny stock gainers today’ I like to also see the ‘biggest penny stock gainers for the last 5 days’.

This shows if any of the one day gainers are starting a strong trend.

Sort by the biggest 5 day percentage change; but pay attention to those with the highest relative volume.

OTC Stock Screener

Trade Ideas can also screen OTC stocks; this includes OTCQB and OYCQX, as well as pink sheets. Just select the markets you want to include in your stock screener.

Warning: Please be careful with OTC stocks and pink sheets. They are not regulated and are highly risky for beginners.
Many pump and dumps involve OTC & pink sheets stocks.

Don’t believe the hype. Most OTC companies fail, so be cynical, not a dreamer. Just trade the momentum, and exit when momentum slows.

90% of beginner traders who trade OTC stocks lose money. Stick with the main Nasdaq market until you gain some experience.

I know YouTube day traders push OTC stocks but be careful. Most of the day traders who make money from them actually short them.

Despite all the warnings I know some people will still trade them. I suppose sometimes you have to learn from your own mistakes. But please, only use a small stake you can afford to lose.
(We all learn more when we lose money than when we make money.)

Better still, why not try paper trading first. If paper trading doesn’t show a profit, neither will using real money.

Biotech Penny Stocks

If you’ve traded penny stocks for awhile, you will have noticed that some of the biggest movers are biotech penny stocks.

For this reason, many penny stock traders specialize in just Biotech stocks, long and short. So wouldn’t it be great to have access to a biotech stock screener?

Biotech Stock Screener

Trade Ideas has a dedicated biotech stock screener channel.

In the screenshot above you can see the biotech channel, with the multi strategy window and the ‘biggest biotech movers today’ list.

We can see that ATOS alerted at $3.34 on the 14^th May 2021.

(Update: On the 8^th June ATOS hit a high of $6.82).

Some of the biggest penny stock movers tend to be biotech stocks.

In this biotech penny stocks example OBLN alerted at $3.01 on the 10^th May 2021, with high volume.

The above 1 hour chart shows the pullback over the following days, which never went below the low of the alert day. So it was safe to buy the dip near the $2.26 area.

By the following Friday (21^st May) the stock hit a high of $4.79 (the screenshot was taken earlier at $4.45). Notice the high volume on the alert day.

Pre Market Penny Stock Movers

Trade Ideas has a dedicated pre market channel. As you saw earlier, we can create penny stock screener settings specifically for premarket penny stock movers.

The above screenshot shows a pre market example.
ARPO alerted on the 17^th May 2021, at $1.53 as it made a pre market high. It then pulled backed to $1.20 which was a good entry point.

Note: Alerts from the ‘Multi-strategy’ window will show as a blue arrow on the charts. In the above example only the 5 minute chart is shown.

If you miss a premarket alert, don’t worry as a good stock will keep alerting during the day.

During the first hour of the regular market ARPO alerted several times. In the above screenshot it alerted again at $1.43 as it crossed the 200 day SMA on extremely high volume.

By the end of the week ARPO hit a high of $2.50 before retracing in the afternoon, as traders took their profits. This was a gain of 63% to 100% in a week, depending on which alert the trade was taken from. Again notice the high volume.

For more on this subject see Premarket Stock Screener 

AI Stock Screener

Trade Ideas also has several AI stock screeners, and you can set these up to look for penny stock trades. You can learn more about their AI in the full Trade Ideas Review.

Penny Stock Screener Alerts

Here are just a few examples of penny stock alerts from the penny stock screener channel.

These examples were taken over a consecutive 3 day period;
Monday 10^th May 2021 to Wednesday 12^th May 2021.

This turned out to be the worst 3 consecutive days of May 2021 for the stock market.

S&P 500 E-mini futures: -4% in 3 days.
NASDAQ 100 E-mini futures: -5.25% in 3 days.

Obviously I had no idea this would be the case, but it turned out to be a good testing ground.

Experienced Traders say that penny stocks are not influenced by the movements of the main stock market. Good market days or bad, penny stocks do their own thing. (Although if the market is strong there are more opportunities.)

Penny Stock Screener Example #1

IHT

IHT alerted on the 10^th May 2021, at $3.49 and $4.53 on two separate lists.

Notice the high volume on the day of the alert.

2 days later it hit a high of $8.98 for a possible 157% gain.

Update 8^th June 2021: IHT hit a high of $14.77

Penny Stock Screener Example #2

PLIN

PLIN alerted on the 11^th May 2021 at various times from premarket to the first hour of trading at an average price of .85c. Notice the high volume on the day.

By the 21^st May it a high of $1.37 for a 59% gain.

Update 8^th June 2021: PLIN hit a high of $1.93

Penny Stock Screener Example #3

WISA

WISA alerted on the 12^th May 2021 at various times from premarket to the first hour of trading at prices ranging from $2.80 to £3.05. Notice the high volume on the day.

By the 21^st May it a high of $4.80 for a gain of 57%.

Update 8^th June 2021: During this week WISA hit a high of $5.63

Again, the above examples were taken on the worst 3 consecutive days of May 2021 for the stock market.

It shows all you need are 1-3 good trades a week. 

Tip: Trade Ideas will give you many alerts, but only take the best trades. In fact it’s a good idea to be very strict with your stock screener settings, so you get a reduced number of alerts.

Summary

Now you know how to find good penny stocks before they make a big move. You have seen just some of the good penny stock screener settings, alerts, and strategies. There are so many more options to try.

This is the best penny stock screener I have found so far. Hopefully the penny stock trade examples given above have convinced you too.

The good thing about penny stocks is they are not dependant on the main stock-market movements, as shown in the examples above. Penny stock trades can be found in any market. But consider adding higher quality stocks, which you can also do this with this software.
You can learn more by reading the complete Trade Ideas Review.

If you trade penny stocks you should give Trade Ideas a try.