Momentum Scanner Update: New Strategies and SEC Filings
StockTitan has rebuilt the Momentum Scanner from the ground up. The new version of Argus, our momentum alerting system, watches more of the US market, names the detection pattern behind every alert, and brings SEC filings into the picture alongside press releases. This guide covers what changed, what each new strategy means, and how to get the most out of the tool, whether you've used it for years or are seeing it for the first time.
At a Glance
| What | Real-time alerts on unusual price and volume moves in US-listed stocks, with news and SEC filings attached |
| Who it's for | Active traders who follow intraday moves, and anyone who wants to see where the day's action is |
| Where | stocktitan.net/scanner/momentum |
| Cost to try | Free with a 15-minute delayed view, no account required; real-time data on Gold and Platinum |
Table of Contents
What the Momentum Scanner Is
Thousands of US-listed stocks can trade at the same time. If you want to find which stocks are moving now and check the news beside a move, Argus brings those tasks together in one scanner.
Argus, StockTitan's Momentum Scanner, exists to do that watching for you. It runs through pre-market, the regular session, and after-hours (4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET on trading days) and posts an alert when a stock's price or volume behavior stands out from the crowd. The page has three working parts. The Top Gainers and Top Losers cards show the scanner's leading movers, updated at your plan's data speed. The alerts feed is a running log of every trigger through the day, one row per event. The activity chart above them shows how alert flow has risen and faded over the past two days, which is a quick way to read how lively the market itself is.
When a mover has recent headlines, they appear right on its card and alert row, so the news is one click away instead of a search away. Whether the news explains the move is your judgment to make; plenty of alerts arrive with no headline at all, so treat the board as a starting point rather than a complete account of any move.
What's New in the Update
This release replaces the scanner's detection engine and redesigns the page around it. The short version:
- Broader coverage. The old scanner followed a ranked list of the day's leading gainers and losers. The new engine monitors eligible US-listed common stocks and ADRs (American Depositary Receipts, the US-listed shares of foreign companies), so a sharp mover no longer needs to be on a leaderboard to be seen.
- A strategy behind every alert. Each alert now carries a badge naming the pattern that fired it: New High or New Low, Rapid Move, or Volume Spike.
- SEC filings join press releases. Relevant filings appear beside a mover's news as compact chips linking to the document.
- A faster, cleaner interface. The alerts feed handles thousands of rows smoothly, follows the newest alert while you watch, and stays out of your way when you scroll back to read.
The scanner’s eligible universe includes common stocks and ADRs. Funds, preferred shares and derivative securities are excluded. A stock can qualify across market-cap sizes; it does not have to be a small-cap or appear on a ranked movers list first.
The Three Alert Strategies, Explained
Each alert row shows the strategy that produced it. Price alerts use their relevant change column, while Volume Spike has a separate volume calculation. The five-minute cell can show a different volume ratio on a time-of-day Volume Spike row, so read the column explanation and tooltip together.
New High and New Low
New High / New Low requires a move of at least 4% from the active reference close and progress beyond prices already alerted in the same direction, subject to liquidity and repeat-alert checks. The reference is the previous trading day’s close during premarket and regular hours, then today’s regular-session close in after-hours. Earlier alerted prices carry across session boundaries until the new trading day. The green or red badge shows direction; it does not certify the highest or lowest trade of the entire day.
Rapid Move
Rapid Move looks for a price change of at least 5% in either direction within roughly five minutes, independently of the 4% New High / New Low rule. An ordinary window between observed prices needs at least $5,000 of estimated traded value; an eligible window starting from a close reference instead needs at least 50,000 shares traded that day. Window eligibility and repeat-alert checks also apply.
Volume Spike
Volume Spike normally compares an aligned five-minute volume window with the stock’s historical windows at the same time of day using a z-score. If that comparison lacks enough history, it falls back to cumulative volume divided by the 20-day average full-day volume, starting at 3 times that average. Liquidity and repeat-alert checks also apply. This strategy runs independently of price direction and the other two alert rules.
Reading the row: the badge names the strategy. The Change column relates to New High / New Low, and the five-minute price change relates to Rapid Move. For a time-of-day Volume Spike, the five-minute volume cell instead shows the alert window divided by its historical same-time median, with the trigger z-score in the tooltip. Displayed volume ratios and trigger calculations have different meanings.
A hypothetical row: on a Gold or Platinum view at 10:47 a.m., a stock trading around $6.40 produces a time-of-day Volume Spike alert. Its Change column reads +3.1%, its five-minute price change is +0.4%, and its five-minute volume cell reads 7.2x. Here, 7.2x compares the alert window with its historical same-time median. The tooltip gives the separate z-score; 7.2x by itself is not a universal alert threshold. The small price changes are compatible with an independent volume alert. If no news or filing is attached, the row supplies no disclosure to explain the activity.
SEC Filings Beside the News
Material company information doesn't always come with a press release. An offering, a current report on Form 8-K, or a merger document can reach the market before any story is written about it, and press coverage sometimes never follows at all. The updated scanner now surfaces selected SEC filings directly on a mover's card and alert row, as compact chips linking to the filing on StockTitan.
The list is screened. Companies file routine paperwork constantly, and a scanner that pinned every administrative document to every alert would bury the interesting ones, so the scanner aims to show the filings most likely to be relevant context for the session. As with news, a filing appearing next to a move is information, not an explanation, and establishing what actually moved a stock takes more than adjacency.
The Redesigned Interface
The page around the data was rebuilt as well, with changes aimed at people who keep the scanner open for hours at a stretch:
- A calmer top of page. The header now lays out what each section does, and a row of plan cards shows exactly what data speed you're on, so there's no guessing about what you're looking at.
- A collapsible activity chart with a same-day summary of alert count and average gain, which remembers whether you left it open or closed.
- An alerts feed built for volume. Busy sessions produce thousands of alerts. The feed renders them without slowing down, follows the newest row while you're at the end of the list, and stops following the moment you scroll away to read, showing a counter of new arrivals instead of yanking the view.
- Search that keeps up. Filtering the feed to one symbol keeps live alerts flowing into your filtered view.
- Columns your way. Show, hide, and reorder columns, including the new Strategy column, and the layout is saved to your account.
- Color as signal. Blue means all of the stock’s alerts today occurred in the current session. White means it also alerted in an earlier session today. A blue symbol can have more than one alert.
Data Speed by Plan
The scanner is the same tool on every plan. What changes is how old the data is when you see it, and how much of the workflow opens up around it.
| Plan | Scanner data | Favorites | Workflow features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free and guests | 15-minute delay | Not included | Full board view, sound alerts |
| Silver | 1-minute delay | 1 symbol | Everything in Free, plus strategy selection and one saved filter preset |
| Gold | Real time | 5 symbols | Custom filters, CSV export, voice alerts |
| Platinum | Real time | Unlimited | Everything in Gold, plus the full real-time Dashboard |
Choose a plan by the data delay and features you need. The free view lets you inspect the scanner with a 15-minute delay. Gold and Platinum receive the feed in real time, with filters and CSV export; Platinum also provides the full Dashboard. Current entitlements and prices are on the pricing page.
What an Alert Doesn't Tell You
An alert is detection, not evaluation. Argus reports that an unusual move is happening. It doesn't know whether the move is justified, sustainable, or relevant to you, and it makes no attempt to judge. Treating an alert as a signal to act on, rather than a fact to investigate, skips the entire step where you find out what's going on.
The attached news may not be the reason. Headlines and filings are attached because they're recent, not because anything has established a cause. Stocks move on sector rotations, index changes, thin floats, large orders, and sometimes nothing discernible at all. Many alerts arrive with no news attached, and a headline sitting next to a move can be pure coincidence of timing.
Session context changes what a move means. Pre-market and after-hours moves often ride far thinner volume than regular-session moves, and prices set in thin trading can retrace quickly once the full market weighs in. The same percentage move at 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. is not the same event.
Getting Started
- Open the scanner: head to stocktitan.net/scanner/momentum. The delayed view works without an account.
- Read the cards first: Top Gainers and Top Losers show you the session's current leaders and how the day is leaning.
- Watch the alerts feed: each row is one event. The strategy badge names the condition that fired; the columns and tooltips explain the associated price or volume measurements.
- Click through: a symbol click opens the stock's page with its chart, news history, filings, and financials, which is where the actual research happens.
- Make it yours: reorder columns, turn on sound alerts, and on Gold and above, set custom filters and star the symbols you're tracking.
Related Tools and Reading
- Understanding Argus Alerts explains every column of the alerts table in detail, including day and session counts, ordinary volume ratios and the time-of-day Volume Spike display.
- 52-Week Highs and Lows covers the longer-horizon cousin of the New High and New Low strategy.
- Stock Movers Today is a snapshot of current top gainers and losers, free and public.
- Real-time news feed shows the press-release flow the scanner draws its headlines from.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a stock momentum scanner?
A momentum scanner is a tool that continuously monitors the market and flags stocks making unusually large or fast price and volume moves. StockTitan’s version, Argus, adds recent news and eligible SEC filings when available and runs from pre-market through after-hours.
Is the StockTitan Momentum Scanner free?
Yes, the full board is viewable free of charge on a 15-minute delay, with no account required. Paid plans shorten or remove the delay: Silver runs on a 1-minute delay, and Gold and Platinum receive data in real time.
What do the strategy badges mean?
New High / New Low uses a move of at least 4% from the active reference close and progress beyond earlier alerted prices. Rapid Move looks for at least 5% within roughly five minutes. Volume Spike compares trading activity with the stock’s own history. The strategies run independently, with their own liquidity and repeat-alert checks. On time-of-day Volume Spike rows, the five-minute volume cell shows a same-time volume ratio and its tooltip gives the z-score. Those are separate measurements.
Does an alert mean the stock will keep moving?
No. An alert describes something that has already happened, and the scanner makes no predictions. Moves that trigger alerts sometimes continue and sometimes reverse immediately, which is why an alert is a starting point for research rather than a conclusion.
I used the old scanner. What happens to my setup?
The scanner lives at the same address, and your saved column layout and filters carry over to the updated page. Starred favorites carry over too in the same browser, keeping their normal daily reset. The main visible additions are the Strategy column, the SEC filing chips, and the redesigned page around them.
Sources and Methodology
This guide describes StockTitan's own Momentum Scanner. Feature behavior, plan entitlements, and data handling described here reflect the platform as of this update's release; the scanner's alert data comes from StockTitan's real-time market data pipeline, and filing links point to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. For how StockTitan produces and reviews content, see our editorial policy.
Disclaimer: This guide is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice. Momentum alerts describe observed market activity and are not recommendations to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.