How day trading software works from the first scan to the review

DayTradingSoftware follows the order of a real trading day. You find stocks in play before the open, narrow them to a short watchlist, let alerts tell you when a level matters, size each entry against your risk, then import the day and learn from it. Every step hands its data to the next one, which is the whole point of having it in one tool.

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Trader's desk at the start of the session with a printed session plan, a phone and two monitors ready

Step 1, find stocks in play before the open

US premarket trading starts at 4:00 ET, and the scanner starts with it. The premarket gappers scan ranks stocks by gap from the prior close and relative volume, so a stock up 25% on 40 times its usual premarket volume rises to the top while a thin stock drifting up on a few hundred shares stays out of the way.

Most small cap momentum traders start with filters close to these and then tune them to their own style.

Price between $2 and $20.
Gap of at least 10% from the prior close.
Relative volume of at least 3x.
Float under 50M shares, or under 20M for faster names.
Premarket volume above a level you can actually trade, for example 200,000 shares by 8:30 ET.

Save the filters as a scan and it runs the same way every morning. Starter keeps 5 saved scans, Pro and Desk keep as many as you need, plus custom formula filters. The full filter list is on the stock scanner page.

Step 2, cut the list down to a few names

A premarket scan can show thirty names on a busy morning, and nobody trades thirty names well. Between roughly 8:00 and 9:25 ET most traders cut the list to three to five tickers. Add them to a day trading watchlist, mark the premarket high, the prior day high and any level you care about, and write one line on the reason the stock is moving. That note matters later, because the journal and the review will show whether trades with a clear reason did better than trades without one.

Step 3, let alerts watch the levels

Once the plan is written, the screen should work for you. Set trading alerts on the levels you marked, a VWAP cross, a relative volume threshold or a new match on a saved scan. Alerts arrive in the browser, by email and as push notifications. Starter allows 50 active alerts, Pro and Desk 500 per seat. After the open at 9:30 ET the momentum scanner adds stocks that change fast over 1 or 5 minutes, new highs of day and halts, so you hear about a move without watching six windows.

Step 4, size the entry before you click buy

When an alert fires and the setup looks right, open the entry card. Type your entry, your stop and the dollar risk you accept on the trade, and the card returns the number of shares. If you risk $100 with an entry at $8.40 and a stop at $8.15, that is 25 cents per share, so the size is 400 shares. The card also shows how far the entry sits from VWAP, which is one of the most common reasons a momentum entry fails. The same calculation is free to try on the position size calculator.

The entry card does not send orders. You place the trade at your broker, as always.

Step 5, import the day into the journal

After the close at 16:00 ET, download the execution CSV from your broker and drop it into the trading journal. It groups fills into trades, subtracts commissions and fees and calculates R-multiple from the stop you set. Because the trade came through the scanner, each entry already holds the scan state at entry: gap %, relative volume, float and time of day. Add setup tags such as premarket high break or VWAP reclaim, and mistake tags such as stop moved or position above risk. Pro adds a chart snapshot at entry. Nobody needs your broker password, since the journal only reads the file you upload.

Step 6, see which setups and scans pay for you

Analytics turn a pile of trades into a few honest numbers. You see results by setup, hour, weekday, price, float and hold time, with expectancy, profit factor, max drawdown and average R. The useful questions come out fast. Do your trades after 10:30 ET give back what the first hour made. Do stocks under $5 pay you, or only cost you. Does a float under 20M help your results or just add noise. The day trading journal page shows the intraday reports in more detail.

Step 7, read the AI review of your own day

Once the journal is updated, the AI day review writes a short summary of the session from your own trades. It points at patterns, for example that three of four losses came after moving the stop, or that every loss came from entries more than 3% above VWAP. It does not look at tomorrow and does not suggest stocks. Starter includes 8 reviews per month, Pro a review every trading day, and Desk a daily review per seat. Read more on AI day trading software.

Step 8, test the rule before you trust it

When the review or the analytics point at a pattern, write it as a rule and backtest it on historical intraday data. A rule might be an entry on a break of the premarket high for stocks gapping 15% with relative volume above 5x, a stop at the low of the first 5-minute candle, a target at 2R and a time exit at 11:00 ET. The result tells you how that rule behaved in the past, not what it will do next week. Keep the rule simple, check it on enough trades and allow for slippage, which is often larger on low float stocks. See backtesting software for the limits of a backtest.

A day trading routine in Eastern Time

Time (ET)	What you do in DayTradingSoftware
4:00 to 8:00	Premarket gappers scan runs, you glance at the top names and their catalysts
8:00 to 9:25	Cut the list to three to five names, mark levels, set alerts
9:30 to 10:30	Momentum scanner and alerts during the first hour, entries sized in the entry card
10:30 to 15:30	Fewer trades for most momentum traders, alerts on levels and VWAP
16:00 to 16:30	Import the execution CSV, add setup and mistake tags
After the close	Read the AI day review and check the analytics
Weekend	Backtest one rule and adjust next week's scans

Why the steps work better in one place

With a separate scanner and journal, the journal knows the price you paid but not why the stock was on your screen. In DayTradingSoftware the scan state travels with the trade, so the reports can answer the question traders actually care about: which of my scans make me money. Compare the plans on day trading software pricing, or start with a sample scan.