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Stock Scanners
Premarket Scanner: Today’s Movers Before the Bell
Most of the day’s plan gets made before 9:30. Trade Ideas shows which stocks are gapping, which are making new premarket highs, and where each one sits in its premarket range.
Top Lists (Screeners) also run in the Web Dashboard, right in your browser. The premarket high and low alerts are Streaming Alerts (Scanner). Streaming Alerts run in TI Pro, our desktop app for Windows (on a Mac, through Parallels). Comparing tools? See our roundup of premarket scanners, or go straight to the gap scanner.
Premarket Scanner guide
What the premarket scan finds
It finds stocks moving before the 9:30 a.m. ET open: gappers, stocks with real early volume, and stocks making new highs or lows in the premarket session.
Most day traders build their watchlist in the last hour before the bell. This scan does the sorting for them, so the list is short and ranked.
Price (Price) and Spread (Spread): skip names you can’t trade cleanly.
Set it up in 5 steps
Open a Top List (Screener) and sort by Gap (%), descending for gap ups.
Set a Gap minimum, like 3 or 4.
Add Relative Volume at 2 or more.
Set a Price range and a max Spread.
In TI Pro, add a Pre-market Highs window with the same filters so you hear about breakouts.
How traders use the premarket list
Build the watchlist. Take the top few names and check why each one is moving.
Mark levels. The premarket high and low are levels many traders watch once the bell rings.
Watch the open. After 9:30, Position in Pre-Market Range above 100 means price is over the premarket high.
Premarket gappers vs. premarket highs
A gapper list tells you who moved overnight. The premarket highs alert tells you who is still moving right now.
A stock that gapped 8% and then sat still for an hour is a different story from one that keeps printing new premarket highs into 9:00. Watching both side by side sorts that out.
Risks and common mistakes
Premarket volume is light. Spreads are wider and a single order can move price more than it would later.
A big premarket gap is not a trade by itself. Many gaps fade in the first minutes after the open.
Don’t chase a stock just because it tops the list. Decide your entry and stop before the bell.
A real chart exampleReal Trade Ideas chart: BZUN builds from the early session and a New High alert fires near 10:00.
The move starts in the early session, before the regular open. Price climbs, holds, then keeps making higher highs, and the alert marks the new high. Watching the premarket range is how you see a move like this set up.
Premarket volume matters
A gap on a few hundred shares means little. A gap on heavy premarket volume tells you buyers or sellers are already in.
Free account, just an email. No card. Live access for a limited time.
What is the premarket scanner?
It is a set of Trade Ideas alerts and filters that watch trading before the open. You see which stocks are gapping, which have volume, and which are making new premarket highs.
How do I find premarket movers today?
Sort a Top List (Screener) by Gap (%) and add Relative Volume so thin gappers drop off. The Pre-market Highs alert fires each time a stock tops its earlier premarket high.
Premarket highs and lows are not part of the regular day high, so the alert tracks them on their own. On a busy morning, the same stock can fire several times as it keeps making new premarket highs.
What is a good premarket scanner for day trading?
One that shows the move and the volume together, and tells you when price breaks the premarket range. Position in Pre-Market Range does that: 100 is the premarket high.
Above 100 means price is over the premarket high. Below 0 means it is under the premarket low. Below Pre-Market High gives the same idea in dollars, and a negative number means price is above that high.
Is there a premarket gap scanner?
Yes. The Gap (%) filter includes premarket gappers. See the gap scanner page for what to watch once the bell rings.
Once the open comes, watch whether the gap holds. A gap that fills fast often tells you more than the premarket move did. Top Lists keep updating every 15 seconds while you watch. The premarket list is a starting point, not a plan, so decide your entry and stop before the bell.
What time does the premarket scanner start?
The premarket filters work as soon as premarket trading starts showing up. Volume is usually thin early, so most traders lean on the list in the last hour before 9:30 a.m. ET.
Is there a free premarket scanner?
You can try it with a free account, just an email, no card. Live access is for a limited time, then it is part of a paid plan.
Premarket scanner vs. TradingView or thinkorswim?
Those show premarket gainers. Trade Ideas adds relative volume and the premarket high and low alerts, so you hear about breakouts without refreshing.
