Finding Low Float Stocks in Australia?

[Dominover]

Can anyone tell me how to find what would be considered low float stocks in Australia. I'm assuming a stock screener would do it but which one?
Low float stocks are those with a relatively small number of shares available for trading and thus tend to be volatile (and can be great for day trading).

Any clues?
Thanks

 

[So_Cynical]

Low float mid, small and micro caps sometimes dont trade for days so day trading them is out of the question, youre looking for large caps.

 

[Dominover]

Low float mid, small and micro caps sometimes dont trade for days so day trading them is out of the question, youre looking for large caps.

Thanks, but not related to what I'm searching for.

 

[Joe90]

Can anyone tell me how to find what would be considered low float stocks in Australia. I'm assuming a stock screener would do it but which one?
Low float stocks are those with a relatively small number of shares available for trading and thus tend to be volatile (and can be great for day trading).

Any clues?
Thanks

Shares on issue x closing price.

Norgate Data and Amibroker can do that. I do it myself.

Not sure on how you account for preference shares though. Norgate Data provides both Shares Out(standing?) and Shares Float. Someone else may clarify that for you.

That other site (HC) also displays market cap for each stock. You could download the list of current Aus shares from the ASX site and create some code or a web query to snipe the MC from that other site to an Excel spreadsheet for filtering.

 

[Dominover]

Shares on issue x closing price.

Norgate Data and Amibroker can do that. I do it myself.

Not sure on how you account for preference shares though. Norgate Data provides both Shares Out(standing?) and Shares Float. Someone else may clarify that for you.

That other site (HC) also displays market cap for each stock. You could download the list of current Aus shares from the ASX site and create some code or a web query to snipe the MC from that other site to an Excel spreadsheet for filtering.

Thanks, yes, I was thinking of the spreadsheet approach. I can certainly write some code to find what I'm looking for if I had the raw data.. Unfortunately Norgate data is an expensive way to do this. An Amibroker won't provide the info I need.

 

[Smurf1976]

That other site (HC) also displays market cap for each stock.

The standard tools on some brokerage platforms also do this very easily by selecting Market Cap as a criteria. Can then either rank by market cap, alphabetically or by choosing some other criteria as well and ranking according to that.

 

[Joe90]

What info do you need that Amibroker can't provide? That's a very limiting statement. Its seldom I find it can't do what I want, more usually its a case of me not comprehending the complexity of the .afl code required to deliver.

 

[frugal.rock]

Not sure if any use or harvestable, but yahoo not bad these days, bit clunky.
An example;
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/quote/BUD.AX/key-statistics?p=BUD.AX

 

[Dominover]

you can definitely use Yahoo. But you have to go through each company at a time. It clearly shows the float for each one. The problem is that you can't screen for it.

The Yahoo screener itself mentions the % of shares from insiders which would help here, that's if it worked. But it doesn't and I would assume that some of these search features will only work on U.S stocks.

Just to clear up a misconception here, Float and Market Cap are not the same thing. Float refers to the number of tradeable shares outstanding, market cap refers to accumulated value of all shares outstanding. You could divide market cap by the share price but you would still have the problem of finding out what % of shares are held by insiders and what % are available for trading.

For something which get's talked about out there I'm amased at how difficult it is to find. Even on the ASX. I would assume a high end screener would do the trick.

Thanks for re-mentioning Amibroker, the fact that you have mentioned it again tell's me I'm probably missing something. So I'll take another look.

 

[Joe90]

Yahoo finance had an API, code and parameters for importing their data are readily available online but they cancelled the service in 2017. I see mention that this service was restarted in 2019 but haven't investigated further. I did some searching last night, there are also sites with code for Python wrappers for loading financial data from Yahoo.
Pixel on here provided a spreadsheet for downloading Yahoo data . You may get some direction from the discussion there post the shutdown of the Yahoo API 2017..
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/threads/full-asx-excel-spreadsheet.27908/

 

[systematic]

Float adjustment is easy enough, but...
I always try to start with the end goal in mind.
I read your question and I don't think you're working backwards from what you're trying to achieve.
You said:
...and thus tend to be volatile (and can be great for day trading).
So, why not just start there to begin with?
I would imagine technical analysis software could do that for you, or you could calc yourself on a spreadsheet after downloading some basic price data.

 

[Joe90]

He's back to Amibroker then
ATR, historical volatility, Boll. bands, Keltner channels, plenty of others I expect. Have to go read some more Dr. Bandy.

 

[huebert]

Trading view has a free stock screener that should be able to find your low float stocks

 

[galumay]

I can't see how low float companies would be any good to trade, nearly all of them will be micro or small caps and the low float usually means they are very illiquid. I am no trader but that sounds liek a recipe for disaster to me!

You also have to be careful what assumptions are used for free float, just because a large % of shares are held by management, directors, or institutional investors, doesnt mean their shares wont suddenly become tradable.

 

[huebert]

I can't see how low float companies would be any good to trade, nearly all of them will be micro or small caps and the low float usually means they are very illiquid. I am no trader but that sounds liek a recipe for disaster to me!

You also have to be careful what assumptions are used for free float, just because a large % of shares are held by management, directors, or institutional investors, doesnt mean their shares wont suddenly become tradable.

Low float can result in higher demand than available supply thus moving the price further and faster in the right circumstances as buyers step up and sellers thin out, obviously risk and exit management and stock selection is key.

Recent IPOs can be lucrative at the right time, in the right industry or sector - the available shares could be as low as 10-20% of the total shares outstanding.

 

[galumay]

I know what the low float can mean in terms of volatility, but I still can't see why a trader would risk the liquidity trap. As I say, I am not a trader so I am not concerned about liquidity.

 

[frugal.rock]

I know what the low float can mean in terms of volatility, but I still can't see why a trader would risk the liquidity trap. As I say, I am not a trader so I am not concerned about liquidity.

Every trader is looking for their niche. I can see there can be profit from it, but the strategy would need to be solid to control risk effectively.
A word of caution, sometimes the "caretaker" of the stock takes a dim view of "outsiders" playing with their game... test the waters before jumping in head first.
Unless you are a broker with peek a boo access, you will never see the dark orders coming...

F.Rock