Short-Term Picks
The short-horizon companion to Long-Term Picks: the ten strongest momentum stocks plus the ten steadiest cash-parking ETFs, ranked from a year of daily prices. Educational, not investment advice.
How the ranking works
Each candidate gets a score computed from up to a year of daily closes, fetched live from a free market data feed (Stooq first, Yahoo Finance when Stooq is not answering). The blended return weighs the six-month return at 50%, the three-month return at 30%, and the one-month return at 20%. The score is that blend minus a volatility penalty computed from the last quarter's daily swings: stocks are docked half their annualized volatility, while the cash side is docked six times its volatility, because for money you'll need soon, not losing is the whole assignment.
The stock side screens the same thirty established large caps as Long-Term Picks, so the two apps are direct complements: that one asks what to hold for a retirement horizon, this one asks what has the wind at its back right now. The cash side screens fourteen short-duration and cash-equivalent ETFs (Treasury bills, floating-rate Treasuries, short Treasuries and corporates, ultra-short income). Like the long-term screen it holds no tax-exempt municipal funds, and returns are price returns only, which understates the cash funds most: nearly all of their real return arrives as monthly income, so read that list as a stability ranking, not a yield ranking.
The second line of numbers describes the ride: annualized volatility of the last quarter's daily returns, the worst peak-to-trough slide of the past year, distance below the 52-week high, distance from the 50-day average close (above it means the recent trend is up), and the best and worst single days of the quarter.
This is a portfolio demo for exploring market data, not investment advice. Momentum can reverse without warning, and chasing it in a retirement account is how long-term money gets hurt. Do your own research or talk to a licensed advisor before buying anything.