“...The majority of stocks are somehow tied to the market and even on high volume/volatility can churn around and follow the same moves that the overall market is making. Today being the fed minutes, you see 1000s of stocks shoot up and sell off after the news is released. What is the best way to pick these stocks out? ...” When I first started trading in 1985 these are the type of questions we used to ask. But we found out they are really irrelevant unless you can tell the rest of us how you intend to trade. For a day trader your stock may be driven by every gyration of an index. If that is case I would be in Tradestation with 2 datafeeds. One data feed for the stock and one data feed for the index and then write a correlation routine. At the same time I write a trading program that matches the markets index moves to buy’s or sell’s your correlated stock. Then watch your index. On a big day up or down look at the list big winners and losers. Then test these against the index with your correlation routine. When you find a list of stock correlations back test the relation ships between the stock and the index. If they pan out desk trade the trading program. Then trade the program against a couple of the stocks with a small number of shares. If it went well I would write the trading plan for it...and you know the rest...
Of course it's associated with the market; the market kind of makes it a price. Because of trading with some of other assets you can accurately say their value. There is no monopoly on the sale.
If you want to make big gains, you will have to enter into stock picking. Look at the low PE stocks, compare with the stocks in the same industry. Look at the volatility of the stock. Avoid the high ones. And out of five relatively safe bet, pick one low profile, small/midcap stock.
Your answers are not here. Research for yourself, work , define, and find stock(s) that do not move in step with the market that suit your trading style. All you need is one at a time.
I'm not sure this answers your question exactly, but look into the stock's "beta". The beta tells you how much an individual stock typically moves in relation to the overall market. A stock with a beta higher than 1 will move more than the market... it has exaggerated moves. A stock with a beta between 0 and 1 has sluggish movement. It moves up or down less. A stock with a negative beta moves in opposite direction to the market. Negative beta can be hard to find for individual stocks, but there are structured products that are designed to move in the opposite direction to the market. There are even leveraged products. So if the S&P goes up 1%, the product is designed to go up 3%. Be careful with those. If the S&P goes down 1%, that product goes down 3%. Betas are known and published. If you go to Yahoo finance, you can see the beta on a stock.