US Surge Stock Sites Compared
— Finviz, TradingView, Fintel, SEC EDGAR: What to Use Where
The sites people use to hunt for US surge stocks are good at different jobs. One finds stocks by conditions, one is for charts, one tracks short interest and ownership, and one holds the original filings. This article covers what each site shows for free, where the paywall starts, and where to check the question most lists leave open: "what actually happened to those candidates?"
At a glance
| Site | Main job | Free | Paid | Data timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finviz | Find stocks by conditions (screener) | Basic screener filters · stock summary | Elite ($39.50/month · $299.50/year): real-time, pre/after-hours, intraday charts, alerts, no ads | Free tier delayed 1 minute (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX) |
| TradingView | Charts, indicators, drawing | 2 indicators per chart · 1 chart per tab · 1 watchlist (30 symbols) | Paid plans from $12.95/month (billed annually) · exchange feeds bought separately | US stock data provided by Cboe by default |
| Fintel | Short interest, borrow fees, institutional and insider ownership | Some summaries | Much of the detail needs a subscription | Short interest follows FINRA's schedule (about every two weeks) |
| SEC EDGAR | Original filings (offerings, earnings, material events) | Everything · new filings listed as they arrive · full-text search over 20+ years | None | As soon as a filing is accepted |
| DawnScan | Daily candidates + review cards + published results | Everything · no login | None | Once a day after the US close · not real-time |
① Finviz — finding stocks by conditions
Finviz is best known for its screener. You pick conditions such as market cap, float, short float, and relative volume, and it lists the stocks that match right now. This is where many surge hunters set filters like "volume spike + small cap."
According to Finviz, stock quotes on the free version are delayed 1 minute for NASDAQ, NYSE, and AMEX. The paid Elite plan ($39.50 per month or $299.50 per year) adds real-time quotes, pre-market and after-hours data, intraday charts, alerts, an ad-free interface, advanced filters, and exports.
② TradingView — viewing charts
TradingView is built around charts: add indicators, draw lines, and load indicators other users have published. The free Basic plan allows 2 indicators per chart, 1 chart per tab, and 1 watchlist of 30 symbols. Paid plans start at $12.95 per month billed annually, and higher tiers raise the indicator and alert limits.
One data detail matters. TradingView says US stock data is provided by Cboe by default, so it can differ slightly from primary exchanges such as NASDAQ and NYSE. Data taken directly from the primary exchanges has to be added on top of a paid plan. The gap can look larger on thinly traded small caps.
③ Fintel — short interest and ownership
Fintel collects "who holds how much" data: short interest, stock borrow fees, and institutional and insider ownership. It is often quoted when people discuss short-squeeze odds, but much of the detailed data requires a paid subscription.
Wherever you look, short interest is published by FINRA about every two weeks, so it lags. That is the cadence of the source data, not a flaw of any one site. The daily "off-exchange short volume ratio" is a different number from short interest, so do not read the two as the same thing (how to read short interest).
④ SEC EDGAR — the original filings
EDGAR is the filing system of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It is entirely free, lists new filings as they arrive, and lets you search the full text of more than 20 years of filings. It is the most accurate place to confirm the offering documents that often follow a small-cap spike (S-1, S-3, 424B) and material-event filings such as the 8-K. The downside is volume: there is a lot to read (dilution risk).
⑤ DawnScan — candidates and their results afterward
After the US market closes, DawnScan scans the whole US stock universe once a day with the same conditions, picks candidates, and attaches a review card to each one that gathers volume, float, short interest, and dilution filings in one place. It is free and needs no login.
It also has clear limits. It is not real-time, it does not catch intraday spikes, and it has no screener for filtering the whole market by your own conditions. If you need to act fast during the session, DawnScan is not the right tool.
What a list does not tell you — what happened to those candidates?
A screener shows the stocks that match your conditions right now. The list alone cannot tell you whether those conditions actually worked in the past. Some sites, such as TradingView, offer strategy backtesting, but choosing the conditions, period, and costs, and interpreting the result, is up to you.
DawnScan records every daily candidate on its track record, misses included. As of 2026-10-23, counting a stock picked several times only once, 27.0% of 511 candidates reached +15% within 20 trading days (95% confidence interval 23.3–31.0%). But picking random stocks with the same volatility would be expected to hit 26.2%. The difference is +0.8 points, so we cannot say our candidates beat any random stock of similar volatility.
We publish this because a "surge candidate" list, from any source, tends to collect stocks that move a lot, which makes it easy to look accurate. Whatever list you use, ask the same question: "compared with any stock of the same volatility?" (the volatility illusion, base rates)
Choosing by what you need
- Chasing moves as they happen during the session — undelayed data is the core. Look at Finviz Elite, TradingView paid data, or your broker's US quote options.
- Picking candidates calmly after the close — start with DawnScan candidates and review cards, then dig into the stocks you care about on Finviz or TradingView.
- Checking offering and dilution risk — the original filing on SEC EDGAR is the most accurate. DawnScan review cards link straight to it.
- Weighing short interest and squeezes — check short interest and borrow fees on Fintel or similar sites, remembering that short interest lags by about two weeks.
- Checking whether conditions worked — see measurements taken on the same basis on the DawnScan track record and base rates.
What to check first after you pick a candidate is covered separately in a 4-step review order for US surge candidates.