ChalniTry the demo

Fundamentals scan

Small-Cap Leaders Screener

This scan finds companies with a market value below $2 billion whose RS rating is above 85, so they beat at least 85% of the stocks in their market over about 6 months.

Run this scan in the live demoFree, no sign-up. The demo uses made-up sample data.

The exact rule

Type this in Chalni: market cap below 2b and rs rating above 85

  1. Mkt cap $bn < 2
  2. RS rating(126) > 85

Find US stocks where the market cap (US$ bn) is below 2; and the RS rating (126 days, 1–99) is above 85.

Formula view
market_cap_busd < 2
AND rs_rating(126) > 85
Example chart: Small-cap leadersDaily candles of a made-up sample stock with Lower panel: RS rating (1 to 99), dotted line at 85. The shaded day is the day the scan fired.
  • Lower panel: RS rating (1 to 99), dotted line at 85
  • Shaded day: the scan fired
Example from Chalni's made-up sample market, not a real stock. It shows the most recent time this scan fired in the sample US market, picked whether or not the trade worked.

What it means

Many of today's big companies were once small caps. Small companies can grow faster, and their stocks can move further, in both directions. Relative strength helps find the ones the market is already rewarding.

The $2 billion line is a common cut-off for small caps in the US. Very small stocks (micro caps) are included too, so liquidity checks matter.

How traders use it

  • Add a liquidity rule to skip stocks that trade too little.
  • Check earnings and sales growth to separate real growers from hype.
  • Use smaller positions: small caps swing more.

Watch out for

  • Small caps can fall very fast in market sell-offs.
  • Wide gaps between the buy and sell price raise your real trading costs.

Test it before you trust it

Every scan in Chalni sits an exam. First it runs on older data, the practice: each time it picks a stock, the stock is held for 10 trading days and 0.2% is paid in costs. Then it runs on newer data it has never seen, the exam. A scan that only works in practice has just memorised the past.

See the practice and exam results for this scan in the demo (on sample data; real data comes at launch).

Questions

What is a small-cap stock?

A company with a small total market value. In the US the usual range is roughly $300 million to $2 billion.

Are small caps riskier?

Usually yes: they are more volatile and harder to trade in size, but they can also grow faster.

Related scans