What is RVOL in stocks?

RVOL (Relative Volume) is a ratio comparing a stock's current trading volume to its historical average volume. An RVOL of 10 means the stock is trading at 10 times its normal volume. High RVOL indicates increased interest and potential price movement, making it valuable for day traders looking for momentum opportunities.

How do I find high volume stocks?

Use a real-time stock scanner that monitors volume across all symbols and compares it to historical averages. Look for RVOL ratios above 3-5x for significant activity. The best scanners track pre-market, regular hours, and after-hours sessions, alerting you the moment volume spikes occur across NYSE, NASDAQ, and OTC exchanges.

What are trading halts and why do they happen?

Trading halts temporarily pause trading on a stock due to significant price volatility (LULD halts), pending news announcements, or corporate actions. Halts typically last 5-10 minutes and are issued by exchanges to allow information to disseminate and prevent panic trading. Traders monitor halts because stocks often move significantly when trading resumes.

What is the best free stock scanner?

The best free stock scanner should offer real-time data updates (not 15-minute delayed), RVOL tracking to identify volume spikes, pre-market and after-hours coverage, and customizable alerts. Look for WebSocket-powered scanners with sub-second latency that track all major exchanges including NYSE, NASDAQ, and OTC markets without requiring a credit card.

How to use RVOL for day trading?

Day traders use RVOL to identify stocks with unusual volume activity. Look for RVOL above 3-5x during pre-market, then confirm with price action. High RVOL stocks often continue momentum during regular hours. Combine RVOL signals with technical patterns and news catalysts for best results. Set alerts for RVOL spikes above 10x to catch explosive moves early.

How do stock scanners work?

Stock scanners continuously monitor price, volume, and technical indicators across thousands of symbols in real-time. They use algorithms to filter stocks matching specific criteria (like RVOL thresholds or price changes), then send alerts when conditions are met. Advanced scanners use WebSocket connections for live data feeds, enabling sub-second alert delivery compared to traditional polling methods.

Can I scan stocks before market open?

Yes, pre-market scanning (4:00 AM - 9:30 AM ET) is crucial for day traders. Look for scanners that track pre-market volume and price movements separately from regular hours. Stocks with high RVOL in pre-market often continue momentum after the opening bell. The best pre-market scanners update every minute and include news catalysts.

Do I need to pay for stock alerts?

Many premium scanners charge $50-200/month for real-time alerts. TheDesperateTrader runs on an affordable subscription at an early-access price of $24.99/month, with day, week, monthly, and longer plans available. New accounts start with 5 free premium days and no credit card is required to begin - full access to RVOL tracking, halt alerts, top movers, and EMA analysis.

Site Guide

Every page, explained.

All 129 pages on TheDesperateTrader: what each one shows, what the numbers mean, and how to actually use it when you trade. Search it, or read it top to bottom and you will know the whole site.

New here? Quick Start Indicator Guide Written Guides How Our Data Works

press /

Start Here6 Live Alerts8 Scanners and Signals10 Movers and Rankings14 Stock Screens by Type10 Charts and Per-Stock Research8 The Watcher6 Where the Money Is8 Calendars and Events7 Community and Social12 Calculators12 Learn12 Your Account, Tools and Support16

Start Here6 pages

If you open one page a day, make it one of these. They answer "what is worth my attention right now".

Home

/

What you see: The live front page: what is moving right now, the biggest movers, halts, unusual volume and the newest scanner alerts, all on one screen.
How to use it: Use it as your first look of the session. If nothing on the home page is moving, there is usually no trade worth forcing.

Top Stocks Today

/top-stocks

free

What you see: Six ranked stocks with live charts, on five timeframe toggles (Scalping, Day, Swing, Position, Investing). Each card shows the boards that flagged the name and the news catalyst behind the move.
How to use it: The simplest place to start. Pick the timeframe that matches how long you actually hold, then read the badges: a name on four boards has more going for it than a name on one. Refreshes every 30 seconds.

Stock Market Today

/stock-market-today

What you see: The full dashboard behind Top Stocks Today: every leader board (most alerted, movers, RVOL, momentum, EMA trend), a market pulse summary and the Top Play hero, on the same five timeframes.
How to use it: Go here when the six-stock view is not enough and you want the whole board. The Top Play here is the same name ranked number one on Top Stocks Today.

The Pulse

/pulse

What you see: A live stream of everything at once: unusual-volume alerts, trending tickers, market news and the trader community reacting in real time.
How to use it: Leave it open on a second screen during the session. It is the fastest way to notice a name catching fire before it reaches the ranked boards.

Alerts

/alerts

What you see: The real-time alert feed: every stock our scanners flag as it happens, with the level, the reason and the price at the moment of the alert.
How to use it: This is the raw signal everything else is built from. Filter to the alert levels you care about, then click a symbol to open its chart before deciding anything.

Discover

/discover

What you see: A guided entry point that points you at the right scanner or board for what you are trying to find.
How to use it: Use it when you know what you want ("stocks gapping up", "unusual volume") but not which page shows it.

Live Alerts8 pages

Alerts are the engine of the site. These pages are the different ways to receive and review them.

RVOL Alerts

/alerts/rvol

What you see: Relative-volume alerts: stocks trading far more volume than they normally do at this time of day, across pre-market, regular hours and after hours.
How to use it: RVOL is the single best early tell that something is happening. A stock at 10x its normal volume has real participation behind the move, not one buyer.

Mover Alerts

/alerts/movers

What you see: The biggest gainers, biggest losers and most active high-volume stocks, updating live across all three sessions.
How to use it: Cross-check a mover against its RVOL. A big percentage move on thin volume is far easier to reverse than the same move on heavy volume.

Price Alerts

/alerts/price

sign-in

What you see: Set a price on any stock and get notified the moment it crosses, on desktop or phone.
How to use it: Better than watching. Set alerts at the levels that would actually change your mind, then go do something else until one fires.

Alert History

/alerts/history

What you see: Every alert that has fired, searchable after the fact.
How to use it: Use it to review. Pull up yesterday, find the names that ran, and look at what their alerts said at the time. That is how you learn which alert patterns matter.

Previous Day Alerts Review

/previousdayalerts

What you see: Every alert from the most recent completed session (4 AM to 8 PM ET) in one ranked list, each with a 0 to 100 quality score built from its signal strength.
How to use it: The review page for the session you just traded. Sort by score and check the top alerts against what the names actually did: that comparison, repeated, is what tells you which alert types are worth acting on and which you should let go past.

Caught Early

/caught-early

What you see: Receipts: the exact price and time we first alerted a stock, next to how high it ran the same session.
How to use it: The honest scoreboard for the scanner. Read it to calibrate what an alert is actually worth, rather than assuming.

Feeds

/feeds

What you see: Per-ticker feeds combining real-time volume alerts, momentum moves and trader discussion for the most active names.
How to use it: When one name is the story of the day, its feed is where the alerts and the conversation sit together.

Stream

/stream

What you see: A raw continuous stream of scanner output.
How to use it: For when you want everything unfiltered. Most traders will prefer Alerts or The Pulse.

Scanners and Signals10 pages

Purpose-built scans. Each one answers a single specific question about the market.

All Scanners

/stock-scanners

What you see: The index of every free scanner on the site in one place.
How to use it: Start here if you are not sure which scan you need.

RVOL Scanner

/rvol-scanner

What you see: Relative volume across all US stocks in real time, with level filters and 200 EMA context.
How to use it: Sort by RVOL, then ignore anything you cannot get in and out of. High RVOL on an illiquid name is a trap, not an opportunity.

Halt Scanner

/halt-scanner

What you see: Live trading halts and resumes, including LULD and circuit-breaker halts.
How to use it: Halts mark violent moves. The resume is the tradeable moment, and it is fast. Know the halt code before you touch it.

Halts Today

/stock-halts-today

What you see: Every stock halted today with the reason, LULD code, halt and resume times, price and day move.
How to use it: The after-the-fact record. Reviewing halts is one of the fastest ways to find names with real volatility.

Gap Scanner

/gap-scanner

What you see: The biggest opening gaps against the prior close, with fill status showing whether the gap filled or held.
How to use it: Fill status is the useful column. A gap that holds through the first hour behaves very differently from one that fills immediately.

200 EMA Signals

/signals/ema-200

What you see: Real-time 200 EMA cross and reclaim alerts, plus proximity signals showing which stocks are testing the line.
How to use it: The 200 EMA is where a lot of traders place their line between trend and no trend. Reclaims off it are a cleaner setup than chasing extended names.

EMA Slope Rankings

/ema-slope

What you see: The market ranked by how steep its trend is, on 5-minute, 30-minute, 4-hour, daily and weekly charts. Slope is measured in percent per session so timeframes compare fairly.
How to use it: Slope tells you the strength of a trend, not just its direction. Steep and rising is a different trade from flat and drifting.

Stock Screener

/screener

What you see: Filter the whole market by price, day percentage change, relative volume and market cap, with one-click preset scans.
How to use it: Build the scan that matches your strategy and save it as your daily routine. Start from a preset and adjust.

Stocks to Watch

/next-session

What you see: The names worth having on your list for the next session.
How to use it: Read it the night before or pre-market. Deciding what you will trade before the open beats reacting after it.

Why Stocks Are Moving

/why-are-stocks-moving-today

What you see: The biggest gainers and losers, each paired with the news or SEC filing behind the move.
How to use it: The "why" changes the trade. A move on an earnings beat behaves differently from one on a dilution filing.

Movers and Rankings14 pages

The same market, sorted different ways. Pick the sort that matches what you are hunting.

Biggest Gainers

/biggest-gainers-today

What you see: Today's largest percentage gainers from the latest session with live prices.
How to use it: Check volume before acting. A gainer with no volume behind it is a move without participation.

Biggest Losers

/biggest-losers-today

What you see: Today's largest percentage decliners.
How to use it: Useful for finding capitulation and for avoiding falling knives. Do not buy a stock only because it is down.

Most Active

/most-active-stocks

What you see: The most active stocks by dollar volume.
How to use it: Dollar volume, not share volume, is the right liquidity measure. This is where you can actually size a position.

Pre-Market Movers

/premarket-movers

What you see: The biggest movers before the open.
How to use it: Pre-market volume is thin and prices can be misleading. Use it to build your list, not to set your entry.

After-Hours Movers

/after-hours-movers

What you see: The biggest gainers, losers and most active names against the 4 PM close.
How to use it: Mostly earnings reactions. Overnight moves frequently reverse at the open, so treat them as information rather than entries.

Weekly Movers

/weekly-movers

What you see: The biggest moves over the week rather than the day.
How to use it: Good for swing candidates. A name leading the week is in a real trend, not a one-day spike.

52-Week Highs and Lows

/52-week-highs

What you see: Stocks printing new 52-week highs and lows, ranked by dollar volume.
How to use it: New highs mean no overhead supply: nobody who bought is underwater. That is a genuinely different tape from a stock trading into old resistance.

Most Volatile

/most-volatile-stocks

What you see: Stocks ranked by ATR percentage, the average size of their daily range.
How to use it: Size positions against volatility, not share count. A 12% ATR name needs a much wider stop and a much smaller position than a 2% one.

Trending Stocks

/trending

What you see: Names ranked by a blend of price move, unusual volume, scanner alerts and Reddit buzz.
How to use it: A composite view. Useful when you want attention and price action in one ranking.

Leaderboards

/rankings

What you see: Site-wide leaderboards.
How to use it: See who is performing on the site and how.

Market Recaps

/recap

What you see: Daily recaps: the biggest gainers and losers, unusual volume, and most-alerted names for every trading day.
How to use it: The single best review habit. Read yesterday's recap before today's open and you start seeing repeat behaviour.

Recap by Date

/recap/[date]

What you see: The full recap for any specific past trading day.
How to use it: Go back to a day you traded badly and reconstruct what the tape actually looked like.

Performance

/performance

What you see: How the scanners and calls have performed.
How to use it: Read it before trusting any signal on the site, including ours.

Session Replay

/replay/[symbol]

What you see: An animated replay of a stock's session.
How to use it: Replay a name that ran and watch where the alerts fired against the move. This is the closest thing to practising a day you missed.

Stock Screens by Type10 pages

Pre-built lists for specific kinds of stock. Each is a scan someone asked for often enough to deserve its own page.

Penny Stocks

/penny-stocks

What you see: The most active stocks under $5.
How to use it: High volatility, high risk, frequent dilution. Check the float and any recent filings before trading one.

Stocks Under $1

/stocks-under-1

What you see: The most active sub-$1 names.
How to use it: Spreads are wide and moves are violent. Position size accordingly, if at all.

Stocks Under $10

/stocks-under-10

What you see: The most active names under $10.
How to use it: A common day-trading range: enough movement to matter, enough liquidity to exit.

Low Float Stocks

/low-float-stocks

What you see: Stocks with a small number of shares actually available to trade.
How to use it: Low float is why some stocks move 100% in a day: small supply, so any real demand moves price hard. It cuts both ways.

Most Shorted

/most-shorted-stocks

What you see: Stocks with the highest short interest as a percentage of float.
How to use it: High short interest is fuel, not a signal. It matters only when something forces shorts to cover.

Short Squeeze Candidates

/short-squeeze-stocks

What you see: Heavily shorted names showing the price and volume conditions that can force covering.
How to use it: Wait for the squeeze to start rather than predicting it. Most heavily shorted stocks simply stay heavily shorted.

Oversold (RSI Under 30)

/oversold-stocks

What you see: Stocks with RSI below 30.
How to use it: Oversold means "fell fast", not "about to bounce". Look for the reversal to actually begin before acting.

Overbought (RSI Over 70)

/overbought-stocks

What you see: Stocks with RSI above 70.
How to use it: Strong trends stay overbought for a long time. This is a list to watch, not a short list.

Post-Earnings Movers

/stocks-moving-after-earnings

What you see: Stocks moving on their earnings reaction.
How to use it: The first move is often not the real one. Earnings gaps frequently reverse in the first hour.

Store Closure Watch

/store-closures

What you see: Live prices for retailers and restaurant chains in the store-closure spotlight.
How to use it: A themed watchlist for a slow-moving news cycle that affects a whole group at once.

Charts and Per-Stock Research8 pages

Everything about one company, once a name has your attention.

Chart

/chart/[symbol]

What you see: The full chart for any symbol: minute and daily views, indicators, alert markers plotted on the price, and news markers.
How to use it: The alert markers are the point. You can see exactly where each alert fired against what price did next, on the same chart.

Trade Dashboard

/chart/[symbol]/trades

What you see: Every trade the Watcher has taken on that symbol: setup used, entry, exit, hold time, capture, size guards and the exit reason.
How to use it: Where you investigate a symbol properly. If a name keeps losing, this shows whether it was the entry, the exit or the size.

Stock Page

/stocks/[symbol]

What you see: The overview for one ticker: live chart, real-time alerts, key stats and the trader conversation.
How to use it: The general-purpose landing page for a symbol. Start here, then open the chart.

Why Is It Moving

/stocks/[symbol]/why

What you see: The likely catalyst behind today's move for a single stock, with volume and alert context.
How to use it: Answer "why" before you decide anything. A move with no explanation is a move you cannot judge.

Catch

/catch/[symbol]

What you see: When we first flagged a stock, against how it moved afterwards.
How to use it: The per-symbol version of Caught Early.

Compare Stocks

/compare

What you see: Two or more stocks side by side on price, performance and fundamentals.
How to use it: Use it when picking between two names in the same theme. Usually one is clearly leading.

News and Analysis

/news

What you see: Plain-English breakdowns of earnings, SEC filings and the catalysts behind the biggest moves.
How to use it: Read the filing coverage in particular. Dilution and offerings are the most common reason a hot stock suddenly stops working.

Indicator Guide

/guide

What you see: What each chart indicator does and how to trade with it: structure, volume, trend, momentum and volatility.
How to use it: If any indicator on the chart page is unfamiliar, this explains it in trading terms rather than maths.

The Watcher6 pages

Our automated trader. It trades a paper account live, and everything it does is published, wins and losses alike.

Watcher Watchlist

/watcher

What you see: What the Watcher is tracking right now, per timeframe, with the setup it is waiting for and its entry plan.
How to use it: Read the entry plan rather than the ticker. Seeing a stated target and stop before the trade is the useful part.

Watcher Lab

/watcher-lab

What you see: The research surface: every setup, its measured performance, and the deploys that changed it.
How to use it: For understanding why the system does what it does. Setup pages show what has actually been tested rather than assumed.

Setup Detail

/watcher-lab/setup/[setup]

What you see: One trading setup in depth: its rules, results and history.
How to use it: Read a setup before copying it. Most setups look better in description than in their numbers.

AI Trade Journal

/ai-journal

What you see: The Watcher's trade-by-trade journal with its reasoning at entry and exit.
How to use it: The reasoning is the value. Compare what it expected with what happened.

Trades

/trades

What you see: The full trade record.
How to use it: Filter it and look at losses first. Wins teach less.

AI Config

/ai-config

What you see: The current configuration of the trading algorithm.
How to use it: For readers who want the exact parameters rather than a description of them.

Where the Money Is8 pages

Follow institutional and insider flow. Slower than a scanner, and often far more informative.

The Money Map

/money-map

What you see: A live map of where market capitalization was added or wiped today, broken down by sector.
How to use it: Zoom out with it. Knowing which sector is being bought stops you fighting the whole tape.

Smart Money

/smart-money

What you see: New 5%+ stakes and fresh 13F equity positions from major funds and corporates, pulled from SEC filings.
How to use it: 13F data is delayed by up to 45 days, so treat it as research rather than a trade trigger. New 5% stakes are timelier.

Filer Detail

/smart-money/[filer]

What you see: Every position for a single institutional filer.
How to use it: Follow one manager you respect rather than skimming all of them.

Super Portfolio

/super-portfolio

What you see: One combined view of what the biggest funds and companies own, across 13F positions and disclosed corporate stakes.
How to use it: Shows crowding. A name held by everyone has less room to surprise than one held by nobody.

Famous Investors

/investors

What you see: Every position Buffett, Wood, Burry, Ackman and other well-known managers reported.
How to use it: Interesting, and slow. Use it for ideas to research, never as a reason to buy today.

Insider Buying

/insider-buying

What you see: Fresh open-market insider buys from SEC Form 4 filings, ranked by dollars and by cluster.
How to use it: Cluster buying is the signal worth noticing: several insiders buying in the same window says more than one large purchase.

Dividends

/dividends

What you see: Upcoming ex-dividend dates, the buy-by date to qualify, cash amount, forward yield and payout history.
How to use it: Note that a stock drops by roughly the dividend on the ex-date. The yield is not free money.

IPO Calendar

/ipos

What you see: Upcoming IPOs and stocks that just listed, with offer price, deal size and exchange.
How to use it: New listings have no chart history and no established levels, which makes them unusually hard to trade. Watch a few before trading one.

Calendars and Events7 pages

What is scheduled to move the market, so nothing catches you mid-position.

Market Calendar

/calendar

What you see: Everything in one place: economic releases, earnings and ex-dividend dates.
How to use it: Check it before the open every day. Most avoidable losses come from being in a position through an event you forgot about.

Economic Calendar

/economic-calendar

What you see: US releases that move the whole market: FOMC, CPI, PPI, jobs, GDP, retail sales and PCE.
How to use it: These move everything at once. Size down into them, or stand aside.

Earnings Calendar

/earnings-calendar

What you see: Who reports this week, before the open or after the close, with consensus estimates.
How to use it: Holding through earnings is a coin flip on a gap, not a trade. Know the date before you enter.

Earnings Next Week

/earnings-next-week

What you see: Every notable company reporting next week.
How to use it: Plan ahead. It is also how you find names that will be volatile in a few days.

Stock Themes

/themes

What you see: Stocks grouped by sector and theme: AI, semiconductors, crypto, energy, dividends, banks, biotech, EV, meme, gaming and more.
How to use it: When a theme moves, it usually moves together. Find the leader of the group rather than the laggard.

Theme Detail

/theme/[slug]

What you see: Live prices and day moves for every stock in one theme, plus the biggest movers and why the group is moving.
How to use it: Confirms whether a move is company-specific or the whole group.

Sector Performance

/sector-performance

What you see: How every sector is performing today, ranked by the median stock, drillable into industries.
How to use it: Trade with the sector where you can. A good setup in a sector being sold has the tape against it.

Community and Social12 pages

What other traders are doing and saying, plus your own presence on the site.

Reddit Radar

/reddit-radar

What you see: The most-mentioned tickers across WallStreetBets, r/stocks, r/investing and more, ranked by mention volume.
How to use it: Retail attention is real and it is early on small caps. It is also frequently wrong about direction. Use it to find names, not opinions.

Reddit Posts

/reddit-radar/posts

What you see: The top stock posts right now, sortable by hot, most upvoted and most commented.
How to use it: Read the comments rather than the headline. Sentiment shifts show up there first.

Google Searches

/google-searches

What you see: The stocks and finance topics people are searching for right now, windowed from 4 hours to 7 days.
How to use it: Search interest often precedes retail buying. A spike with no news attached is worth investigating.

Chat

/chat

What you see: Live trader chat.
How to use it: Fastest place to ask what is happening with a name.

Messages

/messages

sign-in

What you see: Direct messages with other users.
How to use it: Private conversation.

Your Profile

/profile

sign-in

What you see: Your public profile, trades and stats.
How to use it: Publishing your trades is a strong discipline. It changes what you are willing to enter.

User Profile

/profile/[username]

What you see: Another trader's public profile and record.
How to use it: Look at hold times and consistency, not just the wins.

Trading Game

/game

What you see: A paper-trading competition with seasons and rankings.
How to use it: The right place to test a strategy you are unsure about. Same decisions, none of the money.

Game Rankings

/game/rankings

What you see: The trading game leaderboard: every player ranked by account value, with realised and unrealised profit split out.
How to use it: Read the split, not the rank. A leader carried by unrealised profit has not closed anything yet, which is a different thing from a leader who banked it.

Game Trade Feed

/game/feed

What you see: A live feed of every trade players are making in the game, with symbol, side, size, price and realised profit.
How to use it: The fastest way to see what other people are actually doing rather than what they say they are doing. Watch which symbols repeat.

Supporters

/donor-ranking

What you see: The people who fund the site.
How to use it: Recognition for the people keeping it free.

Content Creators

/stock-content-creators

What you see: A directory of stock-market YouTube channels, subreddits and X accounts worth following.
How to use it: Curated so you can skip the search. Judge any of them by their losing trades, not their winners.

Calculators12 pages

Free, instant, no sign-up. The first two are the ones that actually change results.

All Calculators

/calculators

What you see: The index of every calculator.
How to use it: Start here.

Position Size

/position-size-calculator

What you see: Enter account size, risk per trade, entry and stop to get the exact share count and position value.
How to use it: The single most valuable page on this list. Deciding size from your stop, instead of guessing, is what keeps one trade from ending your account.

Risk / Reward

/risk-reward-calculator

What you see: Entry, stop and target give you the reward-to-risk ratio, the breakeven win rate it implies, and expectancy.
How to use it: The breakeven win rate is the number to internalise. At 3:1 you can be wrong most of the time and still make money.

Stock Profit

/stock-profit-calculator

What you see: Buy price, sell price, shares and fees give dollar profit or loss and total return.
How to use it: Run it before entering, not after exiting. Seeing the real payoff often kills a mediocre trade.

Breakeven Recovery

/breakeven-recovery-calculator

What you see: How large a gain you need to recover a given loss, with a table of common drawdowns.
How to use it: A 50% loss needs a 100% gain to get back. Look at this once and your stop discipline improves.

Average Down

/average-down-calculator

What you see: Two buys give your new average cost, total position and unrealized P/L.
How to use it: Use it to see the true cost of adding to a loser before you do it, not after.

Dollar Cost Average

/dollar-cost-average-calculator

What you see: A fixed amount per buy across several prices gives total shares, invested and blended cost.
How to use it: For building a position deliberately over time rather than in one decision.

Compounding

/compounding-calculator

What you see: Projects account growth from starting balance, risk per trade, win rate and reward-to-risk.
How to use it: Shows how much small consistent edges matter, and how quickly overtrading undoes them.

Dividend

/dividend-calculator

What you see: Projects a dividend portfolio with reinvestment, dividend growth, price appreciation and contributions.
How to use it: For long-term income planning rather than trading.

Mortgage Rates

/mortgage-rates

What you see: Current Freddie Mac 30-year and 15-year fixed rates with weekly change and a 12-month trend.
How to use it: Rates drive housing, banks and the broader risk mood. Useful macro context.

Currency Converter

/currency

What you see: Live exchange rates against the US dollar.
How to use it: Useful when trading foreign-listed names or ADRs.

Crypto Prices

/crypto

What you see: Live prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum and the top 50 coins with 24-hour and 7-day change.
How to use it: Crypto often leads risk appetite. Bitcoin selling off overnight frequently shows up in small caps the next morning.

Learn12 pages

Plain-English explanations. Read these before trusting any scanner, including ours.

Quick Start Guide

/user-guide

What you see: The short version: find an alert, open the chart, analyse, decide.
How to use it: Fifteen minutes. Read it first if you are new.

All Guides

/guides

What you see: The full library of written guides.
How to use it: Browse by topic.

Site Guide

/site-guide

free

What you see: This page: every public page on the site, what it displays and how to use it when you trade, with search and a section index.
How to use it: Press / to search it. If you ever wonder whether the site already does something, look here before assuming it does not.

What Is RVOL

/guides/what-is-rvol

What you see: What relative volume means, how it is calculated and why it matters in day trading.
How to use it: RVOL underpins most of this site. Understanding it makes every scanner more useful.

What Is a Stock Halt

/guides/what-is-a-stock-halt

What you see: Why stocks halt, how long halts last, and what every halt code means (LULD, T1, T12, M, H).
How to use it: Read it before trading a halt resume. The code tells you what kind of move you are stepping into.

Alert Levels

/guides/alert-levels

What you see: What each alert level means and how they are assigned.
How to use it: Lets you filter the alert feed to only what you care about.

Using Live Alerts

/guides/live-alerts

What you see: How to work the real-time feed without drowning in it.
How to use it: The practical companion to the Alerts page.

Chart Analysis

/guides/chart-analysis

What you see: How to read the chart page: structure, levels and confirmation.
How to use it: Pairs with the Indicator Guide.

Trading Strategy

/guides/trading-strategy

What you see: Building a repeatable strategy rather than trading on impulse.
How to use it: Read alongside the position size and risk/reward calculators. Strategy without sizing is not a strategy.

How It Works

/how-it-works

What you see: Our data sources, and exactly how RVOL, halt detection and the news-catalyst engine are calculated.
How to use it: Read this to know the limits of the data before you rely on it.

Roadmap

/roadmap

What you see: What is being built next.
How to use it: Tells you where the site is going.

System Status

/status

What you see: Live status of the scanners, data feeds and alerts.
How to use it: Check here first if alerts look quiet. Quiet is sometimes broken.

Your Account, Tools and Support16 pages

Your watchlist, your strategies, your settings, and how to get help.

My Watchlist

/watchlist

sign-in

What you see: Your stocks with live prices, mini-charts, unusual-volume alerts and one-click price alerts.
How to use it: Keep it short. A watchlist of forty names is a list you cannot actually watch.

Strategies

/strategy

sign-in

What you see: Build, save and manage your own trading strategies.
How to use it: Writing a strategy down is what makes it testable. Undocumented rules drift.

New Strategy

/strategy/new

sign-in

What you see: Create a strategy.
How to use it: Define entry, exit and sizing. All three, or it is not finished.

Trading Account

/alpaca

sign-in

What you see: Your connected brokerage account: balance and equity curve, open positions, order history and account activity, plus the Watcher trade log and its scorecard.
How to use it: This is where paper results stop being theoretical. Compare the equity curve against the scorecard: a rising curve with a falling win rate means the size is doing the work, not the edge.

Settings

/settings

sign-in

What you see: Account settings, notification preferences and alert delivery.
How to use it: Set notification preferences deliberately. Too many alerts is the same as none.

/subscribe

What you see: Subscription management.
How to use it: Plans and billing.

Pricing

/subscription-info

What you see: What each plan includes.
How to use it: Most of the site is free. Check here before assuming you need to pay for something.

API Docs

/api-docs

What you see: Developer documentation for the Partner API: one authenticated endpoint returning the symbols our scanner surfaced and which boards flagged them.
How to use it: For building on top of the scanner. The list, not the feed.

Developer Portal

/developers

sign-in

What you see: Your Partner API account: your key prefix, your rate limit and your usage against it.
How to use it: Where you check your own key and how much of the limit you have used. Read /api-docs for how to call it, come here for what your key is allowed to do.