Read this first — research only
RiskVanta is a research and market-understanding tool. Everything here — scores, grades, risk levels, plans, entries, stops, targets, backtests and AI notes — is an estimate produced from public market data. None of it is financial, investment or trading advice, an offer, or a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
Trading and investing carry real risk and you can lose some or all of your money, and more than you deposited with leveraged products. Past results, backtests and hit rates describe what happened before; they do not predict what happens next.
Every decision you make is yours alone. You are responsible for your own trades, sizing and outcomes. RiskVanta, its owners and its contributors accept no liability whatsoever for any loss, damage or cost arising from use of this site, from data that is delayed, wrong, missing or misread, or from anything you do with it. Prices and headlines come from third-party feeds and may be inaccurate or out of date.
If you are not sure whether something suits your situation, speak to a licensed professional first. By using this desk you accept these terms.
How to use the desk
Six steps from a blank screen to a sized trade
- 1Open Today and pick the size you care about — any size, large cap, mid, small or penny stocks.
- 2Narrow it with the Filters button: price range, minimum volume, risk level, grade and market.
- 3Read the top rows: the setup label says what is happening, and "Confirms at" is the price that proves it.
- 4Double-click any row for the full page — chart, support and resistance, patterns, upside score, quant research and the risk breakdown.
- 5Size the trade on the Risk calculator before you place it, never after.
- 6Log it in the Journal, exit price included, so your own record can be compared with the desk's.
Glossary
Every term used on the desk, in plain English
- Watch score
- A 0–100 research ranking based on chart setup, trading activity, trend, patterns, grade and available headline context. It is not a measured probability: a score of 95 does not mean 95 wins in 100 trades. Names flagged as no-trade lose points. Higher means more worth researching, not a promise of profit.
- Grade (A+ to D)
- The desk's overall quality mark for a setup, built from trend, momentum, volume and how clean the levels are. A+ and A come first everywhere. A high grade says the setup is tidy, not that it will win.
- Risk level and risk score
- How much can go wrong here, out of 100. It weighs the stock's everyday swing size, how thin or heavy its volume is, where price sits in its 52-week range, today's move and whether earnings are close. Lower risk means a steadier chart, not a safer outcome.
- Real upside right now
- On each stock page: how far it is to the first target, how far down to the stop, and what you are paid per unit risked at the current price. It re-reads itself as the price moves, so a setup that was worth taking an hour ago can turn thin.
- Entry, Stop Loss and target
- Entry is the planned starting price. Stop Loss marks invalidation; it cannot guarantee a fill at that price. Sell Targets are measured research levels, not predicted prices. Matching targets appear as one Sell Target. A 2:1 reward:risk ratio describes potential gain relative to planned loss, not the chance of winning. Fees, slippage and gaps can change the outcome.
- Support and resistance (zones)
- Prices where buyers or sellers have repeatedly stepped in, measured off real bars rather than drawn by hand. Support is a floor below price, resistance a ceiling above it. Every plan on the desk is built off these levels.
- Confirms at / Failed below
- Confirms at is the price that says the move is genuinely underway. Failed below is the price that says it is not. Waiting for the confirm price is the whole point of the watch list.
- Breakout
- Price pushing above its recent high on heavier-than-normal volume. The idea is that the ceiling has given way.
- Breaking down / Rolling over
- Breaking down is price falling through its recent low on heavy volume. Rolling over is softer — down on the day with momentum fading and sellers in control. Both are bearish reads, not buys.
- Squeeze / Coiled tight
- The daily range has narrowed well below its own normal, so the chart is compressed. Compression usually ends with a fast move, but it does not tell you which way — the trigger and invalidation prices do.
- Pressure score (squeeze)
- 0–100 for how loaded a coil is: how tight the range has become, how close price sits to its ceiling, whether volume is waking up, how long it has been coiling and whether momentum has room.
- Volume and "vs normal" (relative volume)
- Volume is how many shares or contracts changed hands. "vs normal" compares today with its own usual turnover — 2× means twice as busy as a typical day, which is what draws a crowd.
- Company size (cap)
- How big the company is: mega, large, mid, small or micro cap. Big names move slower and are easier to get out of; small and micro caps move further but can gap hard against you.
- Penny stocks
- On the Today page, the penny filter shows names trading under $5. They can move a long way in a day and they can also fall apart on thin volume — position size matters far more here.
- Gap up / gap down
- The percentage between the latest pre-market or after-hours price and the previous close. Gaps are marked stale outside extended-hours sessions rather than invented.
- ATR / daily swing
- The average distance a chart travels in a day, in percent. It is the yardstick for everything: a stop closer than one daily swing usually gets hit by noise, and a target four or five swings away needs real time.
- RSI / momentum
- A 0–100 reading of how hard price has been pushed recently. High means stretched upward, low means stretched downward. It is used as a filter, not a signal on its own.
- Buying pressure (vortex)
- Two lines — upward and downward pressure — measured off the real highs and lows. Whoever is higher is in control, and a fresh cross is where the control just changed hands.
- Patterns and "Backs this plan"
- Shapes found on the real bars (engulfings, double tops and bottoms, higher highs, range breaks). Each is tested against that chart's own past firings. A pattern "backs this plan" when it points the same way and has a winning record; "not proven here" means too little history to trust.
- Quantitative research
- Historical price bars describe volatility, past moves, overnight gaps and observed target-hit rates. Measured Key Levels use technical evidence. Optional AI research summarizes evidence but does not set executable prices. Historical patterns are not forecasts.
- R and expectancy
- R is a multiple of what you risked. Risking $100 to make $250 is +2.5R. Expectancy is the average R per try across many tries — a positive number means the rule made money on average, which still includes losing runs.
- Engine accuracy
- A historical replay of price rules on selected stocks with enough data, not every stock in the Scanner. Review the date range, sample count and cost assumptions. Backtest target-hit rates are separate from forward PaperTrade win rates and are not calibrated forecasts. Wide runs save progress and advance while the backtest page is open; they pause when it closes.
- No trade
- A warning flag: something about the chart — too thin, too stretched, earnings tomorrow, no clean level — makes the setup unreliable. Skipping these is usually the cheapest decision on the desk.
What each screen is for
Jump straight to the one you need
Today
The briefing summarizes available market context. What to watch today ranks research setups, not probabilities of winning. Filters cover price, volume, risk and market; setup groups include heavy volume, squeezes and breakouts.
Swing trades
Multi-day research setups with available plans, best grades first. In-app level checks run while the page is open. Background Watchlist checks have limited coverage and timing; they are not continuous or guaranteed fill alerts.
Gappers
What moved before the open or after the close, biggest gap up to biggest gap down.
Squeezes
Charts coiling tight, with the pressure score, the volume spike, the real ceiling and floor, and the price that confirms the break.
Screener
Supported assets in a sortable table with price, daily move, volume, company size, grade and risk. Wider coverage fills in batches; it is not every listed instrument scanned simultaneously. Quotes may be delayed or cached.
Heatmap
Tracked assets grouped by sector and industry, with price changes and counts. This is a coverage-limited market snapshot, not a measurement of money flowing into a sector.
Live charts & Chart grid
Charts and Chart grid use desk charts with trend lines, support and resistance, Entry, Stop Loss and Sell Targets drawn on them. Exchange data may be delayed.
Engine accuracy
The honest scoreboard for the desk's price rules across several years of real bars, including a year-by-year table.
Journal
Log your own trades — entry, stop, target, size, then the exit. It shows your win rate and average R, and the desk compares its own record against yours.
Risk calculator
Enter your capital and how much of it you will risk per trade; it returns the position size that fits, the money at risk, and what each target pays.
Gap emails
Save gap-alert preferences and preview a morning Watchlist digest. Email delivery requires enabled checks and delivery settings. These pages do not establish that a background email service is active or guarantee instant delivery.
Research and risk desk · third-party data may be delayed or cached · no guaranteed returns or win rate.