Understanding Argus Alerts: How to Read the Momentum Scanner
Argus is StockTitan's momentum scanner. It watches the market in real time and posts an alert whenever a stock makes a meaningful new move. This guide explains how to read those alerts: the count next to a symbol, the word "new", the blue and white colors, and why an alert fires when it does. Everything here describes how the tool reports the market. None of it is trading advice.
Table of Contents
- Start With One Stock's Day
- Why an Alert Fires
- Reading a Row: Three Separate Signals
- Sessions and How They Reset
- Today Alerts vs Session Alerts
- Rel.Vol M vs 5-Minute RVOL
- How Rows Are Ordered
- Using Filters to Read Where a Stock Is in Its Move
- A Few Things This Does Not Mean
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources and Related Pages
Start With One Stock's Day
The quickest way to understand a row is to follow one stock through a trading day. Here is a common pattern: a stock that runs in premarket, then again after the open. Watch what the row shows at each moment.
| When | What the row shows | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Premarket, around 5:00 a.m. ET (first alert) | new (blue) | The stock just cleared 4% and made its first alert of the day. "new" means the counter is at 1, and the symbol is blue because every alert so far is in the current (premarket) session. |
| Premarket, by about 5:55 a.m. | x14 (blue) | It has made 14 new highs, all in premarket, so it stays blue. Its high for the day is now set at the top of that run. |
| Regular open, 9:30 a.m. | No new alert just because the clock changed | The session counter resets behind the scenes. The day's total and the recorded high don't reset. |
| Regular hours, first new high above the premarket high | new (x25) (white) | "new" is the session counter (first alert of the regular session). "(x25)" is the day counter (25th alert today). The symbol is now white because the stock already alerted in an earlier session. |
| Later in regular hours | x3 (x27) (white) | More new highs. The session counter climbs from its reset while the day counter keeps going up. |
The same row passed through three states, blue "new", blue "x14", and white "new (x25)", with nothing going wrong at any point. The rest of this guide explains why.
Why an Alert Fires
An alert is not simply "the stock is up 4%". In practice, two things have to line up:
- The stock has moved at least 4%, which is Argus's minimum scanner threshold.
- It has pushed beyond the highest price it has already recorded that day, for gainers, or the lowest, for losers.
That second part is the one that surprises people. The recorded high carries across sessions. If a stock ran to a high in premarket, a later climb in regular hours won't alert again until it trades above that premarket high. So when an alert seems to arrive "late", it usually means Argus already alerted during an earlier part of the move.
Reading a Row: Three Separate Signals
Three parts of a row answer three different questions. They are independent, which is exactly what trips people up.
The counts (session count and day count)
Argus can show two counts. The current-session count comes first. When a second number appears in parentheses, that is the total for the whole day. So a blue x14 means the session count and the day count are the same, because all 14 alerts happened in the current session. A white x3 (x27) means 3 alerts in the current session and 27 for the day. The day total keeps climbing all day, while the session count resets at each boundary.
The word "new"
"new" appears in place of a number whenever a counter is sitting at one. On the day counter it means the first alert of the day. On the session counter it means the first alert of the current session. That is why you can see "new" next to a high day number, like "new (x25)", right after a session resets.
The color (blue or white)
Blue means every alert the stock has had today happened inside the current session. White means it also alerted in an earlier session today. Blue is not "first alert": a blue "x14" is fourteen alerts that all happened in the current session.
Sessions and How They Reset
Argus runs across three sessions: premarket (4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. ET), regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET), and after-hours (4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET). At each boundary the session counter resets to zero, and a symbol can switch from blue to white. The day counter and the recorded high or low carry through to the end of the trading day. If you trade the early and late windows, our guide to pre-market and after-hours trading covers how those sessions behave.
Today Alerts vs Session Alerts
Both filters count alerts, over different windows. Today Alerts is the running total for the whole day. Session Alerts is the count within the current session only, which resets at each boundary. The same stock can show a high Today number and a low Session number at the same moment, right after a reset. A low Session Alerts range focuses on what is fresh in the session you are watching, while Today Alerts shows how active a stock has been across the whole day.
Rel.Vol M vs 5-Minute RVOL
Both compare volume to an average, over different windows.
- Rel.Vol M compares the volume the stock has traded so far against its average full day. A value of 5 means it has already traded about five times its average daily volume.
- 5-minute RVOL compares the volume in the last five minutes against the stock's typical five minutes. A value of 3 means it is trading at about three times its usual five-minute pace.
One is a slower, cumulative gauge; the other is a fast read on the last few minutes. That is why the two can point in different directions. Volume and price range are also what drive volatility readings like Average True Range (ATR), which measures how much a stock typically moves.
How Rows Are Ordered
The Top Gainers and Top Losers lists are ordered purely by the size of the percentage move. The live alert feed is ordered by time, newest at the top. Filters decide which stocks qualify to appear, but they don't re-rank the list.
Using Filters to Read Where a Stock Is in Its Move
This section describes what each filter includes or excludes. It is not a recommendation to trade or a suggested combination of settings.
- Price limits the view to a price band.
- Float, with a ceiling, keeps the view to smaller-float names.
- Relative volume shows when volume is unusual for that stock.
- A low Today Alerts range shows names that have alerted only a few times so far.
The first alert of the day can happen before the regular open. How quickly you see it depends on your data speed, but that doesn't make the alert predictive.
A Few Things This Does Not Mean
- "new" does not mean first alert today when there is a second number in parentheses beside it. It means first alert of the current session.
- White does not mean stale or low quality. It just means the stock already alerted in an earlier session today.
- A later alert does not mean Argus missed the move. The stock's high may have been set in an earlier session, so it only alerts again once it trades beyond that high.
If a row ever looks confusing, come back to the three signals: the count is how many, "new" is whichever counter is at one, and the color is whether the whole day's run has stayed in a single session. Together they tell the full story of where a stock is in its move.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "new" mean on an Argus alert?
"new" means a counter is sitting at one. On the day counter it is the first alert of the day; on the session counter it is the first alert of the current session. That is why "new (x25)" can appear right after a session resets: first alert of the new session, 25th alert of the day.
Why is a symbol blue on one alert and white on another?
Blue means every alert the stock has had today happened inside the current session. White means it also alerted in an earlier session today. Blue is not "first alert", and white does not mean stale.
Why did an alert seem to fire late?
An alert needs a new high (or low) beyond the level already recorded that day, and the recorded high carries across sessions. If the stock set its high in premarket, it won't alert again in regular hours until it trades above that premarket high. A later alert usually means Argus already alerted earlier in the move.
What is the difference between Today Alerts and Session Alerts?
Today Alerts is the running total for the whole day. Session Alerts counts only the current session and resets at each boundary. Right after a reset, the same stock can show a high Today number and a low Session number at once.
What is the difference between Rel.Vol M and 5-minute RVOL?
Rel.Vol M compares the volume traded so far today against the stock's average full day. 5-minute RVOL compares the last five minutes against the stock's typical five minutes. One is cumulative and slow; the other is a fast read on the moment, so they can point in different directions.
Does an Argus alert predict that a stock will keep moving?
No. An alert reports that a stock made a new move past a threshold; it is a description of activity, not a forecast. Argus does not predict prices or recommend trades, and nothing in this guide is financial advice.
Sources and Related Pages
This guide documents the live behavior of StockTitan's Argus momentum scanner: the alert thresholds, counters, colors, session boundaries (all times U.S. Eastern), and filters as they appear in the product.
- StockTitan Momentum Scanner (Argus): the live alert feed described in this guide.
- Pre-Market and After-Hours Trading: how the early and late sessions behave.
- Average True Range (ATR): reading volatility, which relates to how far a stock moves between alerts.
Disclaimer: This guide is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice. Argus shows current and historical market data to help you spot activity; it does not predict prices or recommend trades. Always conduct your own research before making trading 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.