You probably have been thinking about “What stock are day traders watching?” while you are staring at a chart. It’s pretty common. When you are starting out you will want to see what “pro” traders are doing in order to learn something about it. There are two ways to go here, you can either learn to pick a stock for day trading or look around for popular stocks that day traders are watching.

Perhaps, using popular stocks does not guarantee you will have a successful trade. But knowing which stocks are popular guarantees one thing: volume and volatility.

Both are a must-have for day trading and popular stock, since they are popular, they have a lot of this. That’s why you should always consider taking a look at the stocks that day traders are watching. It just made the whole process a bit easier. Here’s a list of the most popular stock for day trading.

Note: As I said before, this will not guarantee you will have a successful trade.

Popular Stocks and ETFs for Day Trading

Rather than just throwing a list at your face, I’m first going to talk about popular stocks and popular ETFs for day trading. This way is easy to assimilate everything.

Back in 2019 I remember reading a post by kiplinger about the best stocks of all time. The post talked about a finance professor that analyzed the lifetime returns of over 25.000 stocks. Hendrik Bessembinder, found out that just 4% of stocks generated ALL of the wealth created for holders in the stock market between 1926 and 2016. That talks a lot about popularity!. To be more accurately only 50 stocks made the wealth of that amount.

The list is packed with familiar names, like HP, Boeing, and Jhonson & Jhonson. I’m going to list the 5 most popular.

Related Read: What is a Stock Watchlist?

Best Stocks off all-time by Hendrik Bassembinder

1. ExxonMobile, with his ticker symbol, XOM. This stock has made over $1.0 Trillion in lifetime revenue with an annual return of 11.6%.
2. Apple, ticker symbol; AAPL. The growth of Apple is something that has startled many investors. Hitting a lifetime wealth of $759 Billion and an annual return of 16.3%.
3. Microsoft, ticker symbol MSFT, has achieved a lifetime wealth creation of $630 billion with an annual return of 25 percent.
4. General Electric, ticker symbol GE. With an annual return of 10% and a lifetime wealth creation of over $600 billion.
5. International Business Machine, ticker symbol IBM. Has over 520 billion in lifetime wealth creation and almost 14% of annual return.

Note: Those stats are based on the Hendrik Bassembinder study that he made between 1926 and 2016.

Knowing the most popular stocks over ALL time gives you a nice overview of what stocks day traders are watching. So, let’s get a list of the most popular stocks in 2021 that day traders are watching.

Popular Stocks and ETFs for Day Trading

• Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, symbol XLF, with an average volume of 54Million
• Invesco QQQ, symbol QQQ. Has an average volume of 29 million.
• iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN, symbol VXX. Has an average volume of 38 Million.
• SPDR S&P 500 ETF, with its symbol SPY, is an all-time popular with an average volume of 72 million.

Related Read: Movies About Stock Market

Wrapping everything

Knowing the most popular stocks gives you a huge advantage. Remember those popular stocks have a lot of volume and volatility and that’s the perfect equation for day trading. Besides, knowing what stocks are day traders watching makes the whole process of picking a stock easier. Based on your criteria, just made a stock watchlist with popular stocks and start from there.