This is probably not a strict TA question, but I'm not sure where to ask it: what characteristic(s) would you use to describe a stock that (historically) traverses a high percent price range? In other words, over a specific time period, how would one numerically assess a stock's "covered ground"? Imagine a stock currently at $100 that, over the course of a year ran from $90 to $110 and then back to $100. It traversed $30 (so I'd say it has a 30% "range", for lack of a better word). It's not beta. It's not a classic indicator like MACD or RSI or whatever else is out there (that in my mind tend to not be all that reliable). It's more of a fingerprint. What would you call it? Is it screenable? Obviously I'm curious about identifying stocks that "move". I know a few, mostly ones that tend to trend in one direction for specific reasons (consistent buybacks, or maybe headwinds like contango on a commodity, etc.). Am I making any sense? Obviously, I can take a given underlying and jam it into Excel, do something like calculate a couple of moving averages, and calculate price movement between moving average crossovers. (Pick your metric.) But that's laborious and clumsy. Is there a parameter like beta that points to what I'm thinking about? Thanks for any thoughts . . . and if there are similar threads and or links to articles, I am not averse to reading!
I feel like you're asking for something more specific or tailored than volatility, but also think you'd have mentioned it if you were. Is volatility what you're looking for?
The term in is 'swing power' - these are stocks that have a history of making the larger moves between long standing major support & resistance levels. Just set up your chart to show percentages and scroll on through. Many of us swing traders rip through hundreds of charts per day - welcome to the club.
From standard available indicators would Average True Range give a decent approximation, say as a %age of most recent close?
ATR measures overnight gaps as well, so you'd also see some ADRs there that don't move intraday. There is the ATR Percentage indicator that works on a percentage basis.
Standard deviation = average volatility over a range ATR = average intrabar volatility Bollinger band and ATR bands will show average limits based on past price data
Is there any reason to believe swingy'ness is persistent? Swing power is simply looking at the historical price swings over a wide period of time to help make a list of stocks to trade. Some stocks are often sluggish and don't trend so well, others make rapid & wide swings, trend well, and typically far outperform the indexes in up or down legs. Swing power is persistent to a degree. In the dot.com bull semiconductors were extremely strong - they have to be for the NDX-100 to make new highs. The same is true in this bull market. In the 20's bull market it was the railroad stocks leading the charge. Swing power has a long look back, but is does eventually become outdated.