Scan for equities making 52-week highs with above-average volume; classify breakout quality
Finds stocks breaking to new highs on strong volume. It scores eligible names on proximity to their 52-week high, volume relative to their 20-day average, relative strength, and recent one-month return, after market-cap and liquidity filters. The result is a ranked list of breakout candidates flagged as alerts, with the supporting figures shown. It shows which names score highest on these measures, with the figures behind each.
The equity breakout scan - the same effect, with the input the crypto version lacks.
THE CORE MEASURE. Proximity to the 52-week high, which is the exact quantity George and Hwang (2004) studied. They found it predicted returns and, tested against traditional momentum, DOMINATED it - which is a striking result, since momentum is among the best-documented anomalies there is. The explanation offered is ANCHORING: the 52-week high is a salient, widely published reference point, and investors are slow to revalue above it, so adjustment to good news continues after the level is exceeded.
WHY THE 52-WEEK HIGH SPECIFICALLY. It is not an arbitrary lookback - it is a number printed on every quote page and in every screening tool, which is what makes it psychologically salient. The mechanism depends on the number being WATCHED, so the effect is tied to that particular convention rather than to the arithmetic of a one-year maximum.
VOLUME CONFIRMATION IS THE ADDITION HERE, and it is the strongest input in this screener. The traditional argument is that a move on heavy volume represents broad participation while one on light volume represents few participants, and the empirical literature on volume and price is substantial. Measuring volume RELATIVE to a 20-day average is the right construction: absolute volume is meaningless across stocks of different size, and only abnormal volume carries information. Note the caveat that volume itself is not directional - heavy volume accompanies distribution as readily as accumulation.
NO HOLDER IS UNDERWATER at a new high, so the overhead supply from investors waiting to exit at break-even is absent - the mechanical counterpart to the anchoring story, and connected to the documented disposition effect (Shefrin and Statman, 1985).
THE TREND-FOLLOWING CAVEAT. Breakouts work in trending markets and whipsaw in ranging ones, and a false breakout is only identifiable afterwards. A screener cannot tell them apart at the moment of the break.
RELATIVE STRENGTH AND ONE-MONTH RETURN sit in the composite too, and the one-month component carries the short-term reversal caveat described in the momentum screener - it points the opposite way to the documented longer-horizon effect.
The scoring weights and filters are our own convention. This is a watch list, not a recommendation.
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