How to screen for stocks near highs and lows

Write a selection question

Define high-side and low-side proximity separately. A close near the highest high and a close near the lowest low use different denominators. Choose the lookback before choosing the threshold, and distinguish proximity from making a new extreme today.

Read field units and lookback periods

The 52-week window contains 252 trading sessions. Close 95 against a high of 100 is −5% from the high and meets the high-side preset. Close 110 against a low of 100 is 10% above the low and meets the low-side preset. These are hypothetical values.

Start from the canonical preset

Open the paired screen and choose the rule below. It includes the reference population as well as the selection conditions. Use the same expression in CleverScan so the learning example and the screen answer the same question.

securityType = "Stock" and indexMembership contains "SP500" and (hi52wFromHighPct >= -5)

Compare another question before combining rules

Use the 20-session variants for a shorter research window. The new-high and new-low rules use the current session’s high or low reaching the window extreme. A near-high rule is not an all-time-high test and should not be relabelled as one.

securityType = "Stock" and indexMembership contains "SP500" and (hi52wFromLowPct <= 10)

Inspect a match and a boundary exclusion

Inspect the extreme-setting candle, the time since the level was set and the price path between tests. A near-low candidate may still be declining; a near-high candidate can be extended after a sharp rally. Compare trend context separately.

Change one condition at a time and compare a row just inside the threshold with one just outside it. A zero-match result means the selected population did not meet the whole rule for that session; it is not a reason to silently change the question.

Save a reproducible research definition

Save the expression through the editor’s Library workflow. Record the selected session, population and sort so a later run can be compared meaningfully. A saved scan preserves rules, while a watchlist preserves symbols; their results can change independently.