RAPID TRADES SCANNER
Rapid Spike: sudden momentum, surfaced as it develops
Rapid Spike is a Rapid Trades scanner capability designed to surface sudden developing momentum that meets the platform’s criteria. It exists for the situation a hand-refreshed watchlist handles worst — a name beginning to move quickly that was not already on your screen.
One of six views in the scanner workspace. Coverage runs 4:00 AM – 8:00 PM ET — premarket, regular session, and after-hours.
THE VIEW
What a Rapid Spike event looks like in the workspace
All tickers, figures and headlines below are fabricated for product preview.
Rapid Spike events, as they arrive in the workspace
Short-window momentum reaches the feed while the move is still forming.
| Time | Ticker | Price | Change | Strength | Volume | RVOL | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:33:41 | KLYT | 2.11 | +5.6% | 6.83M | 11.2x | Rapid Spike · repeat | |
| 09:32:58 | VXLT | 1.87 | +6.8% | 8.92M | 14.7x | Rapid Spike | |
| 09:31:12 | KLYT | 1.98 | +4.1% | 4.10M | 9.6x | Rapid Spike | |
| 09:30:24 | RPDX | 3.42 | +4.2% | 4.21M | 8.4x | Rapid Spike | |
| 09:29:47 | ZTMK | 0.91 | +3.8% | 11.9M | 18.1x | Rapid Spike |
Criteria-based events — never entry or exit calls. Illustrative demo — not live market data, and not a recommendation to buy or sell.
THE PROBLEM
You cannot watch a list and watch the market at once
A watchlist covers names you already decided to care about. That decision was made earlier — before the open, or yesterday — and the market does not restrict itself to it. Some of the sharpest movement in a session happens on names nobody had a reason to be watching until the moment they started moving.
Rapid Spike addresses that specific gap. Rather than requiring you to be looking at the right ticker at the right time, the event arrives while the move is still forming — with the participation and context needed to decide, quickly, whether it is worth any further attention at all. Frequently the answer is no, and reaching that conclusion in seconds instead of minutes is most of the value.
WHAT AN EVENT CARRIES
An alert is only as useful as what arrives with it
A ticker and a percentage is a prompt to go and do research somewhere else. The intent here is that the row answers the first round of questions on its own.
The move itself
Price and the size of the change, so the event describes what happened rather than simply announcing that something did.
The participation behind it
Volume and relative activity on the same row. A change in price with nothing behind it is a different event from the same change on heavy participation.
Catalyst context, where it exists
The relevant headline attached to the event when one is identified — and an honest blank when none is.
The event time
When the event was raised, so it can be read in the context of the session rather than in isolation.
IN THE WORKSPACE
One view among six, deliberately
Rapid Spike answers “what is moving right now.” It sits beside Morning Gappers for the premarket list, Low-Float Momentum for supply context, Breakout Conditions for levels, Catalyst Context for the reason, and Trade Halts for whether the name is even trading.
That last one matters more than it sounds. A name that spiked and is now halted is a status, not an opportunity — and having both facts in the same workspace is the difference between knowing that and acting on a price that is no longer live.
WHAT IT IS NOT
Four things Rapid Spike does not claim to be
Worth stating directly, because the category this product sits in is full of tools that imply all four.
Not a trade signal
No entry, no exit, no target, no direction. A Rapid Spike event states that criteria were met — what you do with that is your decision and your responsibility.
Not a prediction
Sudden momentum precedes moves that continue and moves that reverse. The event describes conditions that exist, not conditions that will persist.
Not a completeness claim
Rapid Trades does not claim to surface every fast move in the market, and no scanner honestly can. Criteria that surface everything surface nothing useful.
Not a quality guarantee
Quality criteria are designed to reduce weak and noisy events. Reduce is the accurate word — a shorter, better-contextualised list is not a filtered-to-perfection one.
If the concept rather than the product is what you are after, how momentum scanners work covers the general case, and the education library includes a written module on validating a fast move before acting on it.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Rapid Spike questions
What is Rapid Spike?
- Rapid Spike is a Rapid Trades scanner capability designed to surface sudden developing momentum that meets the platform’s criteria. It is one of six views in the scanner workspace, and it exists for the case a manually refreshed watchlist handles worst: a name starting to move quickly that you were not already watching.
How does Rapid Spike decide what to surface?
- Through proprietary momentum detection with built-in quality criteria applied before an event reaches your workspace. The specifics are not published — the criteria are part of what Rapid Trades is, and publishing them would tell you nothing useful about how to research an event anyway. What is published is what you receive: the move, the participation behind it, and the context to judge it.
Is Rapid Spike available on a free account?
- A free beta account includes the dashboard and a preview of the scanner workspace with demo data. The full workspace, including the live alert feed, is part of Founding Beta during private beta. Founding Beta pricing has not been announced.
How is Rapid Spike different from a momentum scanner alert elsewhere?
- The difference is what arrives with the event rather than any claim about speed. Participation, float, relative activity and catalyst context sit on the row, and quality criteria are applied before the event reaches you rather than being left as filtering work you do in real time. Rapid Trades makes no comparative claim about detecting moves earlier than any other tool.
Risk notice: Rapid Trades is educational software, not financial advice. Day trading involves significant risk and can result in substantial losses. Scanner alerts are criteria-based events, not recommendations to buy or sell. Trade responsibly.
Private BetaLimited Early Access
Open the scanner and watch it work
Rapid Trades is in private beta. A free beta account opens the workspace with the scanner preview; Founding Beta unlocks the full workspace and the live alert feed.
Beta access is currently open. Capacity is limited while we scale.
RESEARCH GUIDES
Related reading on momentum research
- How momentum scanners workWhat a momentum scanner actually measures, and why most of them surface more than you can use.
- Relative volume, explainedWhy the same share count means different things on different names, and what a baseline is for.
- Catalysts and why a stock is movingHow traders establish the reason behind unusual activity, and what to do when there is not one.