How To Tell a Diamond From a Dud Before the Spike

We’ve already seen how a few stocks are capable of growing your account.

And the opportunities are far from over.

Just last week:

• A medical diagnostics stock spiked 80%.

• A global retail stock spiked 110%.

• An EV stock spiked 280%.

To me and my students, these setups were obvious.

The biggest stock spikes don’t happen by accident. And the proof lit up the market like a round of fireworks.

Your Monday Motivation: There are hundreds of stock spikes every week.

Most of them are noise. But buried in that chaos are the diamonds. The explosive tickers that move by huge percentages and give us the best opportunities to pull gains.

There’s a way to tell the difference between a diamond and a dud…

Every massive spike, every 50%, 100%, 300% intraday move, they all share two simple characteristics.

Stop playing low-odds setups. Focus on the strongest runners.

Factor #1: Float

A low float is the oxygen that adds fuel to every major spike in the market.

The float’s size can mean the difference between an explosive breakout and a fade below earlier support.

When a stock has a tiny supply of shares available to trade, it doesn’t take much volume to move the price. When the crowd rushes in, the share price can rip hundreds of percentage points higher in a single day.

It’s a basic law of supply and demand: Too many buyers, not enough shares.

Our goal is below 10 million shares in the float.

But a low float is only one half of the equation.

Factor #2: Catalyst

The low float supplies oxygen for the flame.

But the catalyst is the true fuel.

Every explosive spike starts with a catalyst that gets traders’ attention and floods the stock with volume.

It could be breaking news about a new contract, FDA approval, a merger, an earnings surprise, or a government grant.

The longer you’re in the market, the more catalysts you’ll see. Any bullish news for a company can turn into a catalyst for a spike.

The news is what turns a forgotten penny stock into a front-page frenzy. It creates urgency, it attracts momentum traders, algorithms, even average Joes on Facebook.

Suddenly, they’re all fighting for the same limited shares because of the bullish news catalyst.

Understand, not every headline is worth trading. The key is identifying fresh, high-impact news that connects directly to current market themes. Like AI, EVs, biotech, energy, whatever’s hot that week.

Combine that kind of news with a low float … And you’ve just spotted your next diamond in the rough.

Examples of Diamonds in the Rough

The three moves from last week that I shared earlier all have these two factors in common:

1. Biodesix Inc. (BDSX) spiked 80% after announcing bullish fourth-quarter and full-year results. The float is 3.8 million shares.

BDSX chart intraday, 1-minute candles.

2. Lulu’s Fashion Lounge Holdings Inc. (LVLU) spiked 110% after Friedland Enterprises disclosed a 5% stake in the company. The float is 1.2 million shares.

LVLU chart intraday, 1-minute candles.

3. Envirotech Vehicles Inc. (EVTV) spiked 440% after it announced a merger with AZIO AI, an AI company with $100 million of government purchase orders. The float is 3.9 million shares.