52-Week Low¶
A 52-week low is the lowest intraday or closing price a security has printed over the trailing 52 weeks (approximately 252 trading sessions). It marks the cheapest point at which the asset has changed hands in a calendar year, meaning every holder who bought during that window at any higher price is currently at a loss. The level rolls forward one trading day at a time and resets whenever a fresh low is printed.
HOW IT WORKS¶
The 52-week low is identified mechanically: scan all sessions in the trailing 252-day window and record the minimum low price. Two derived metrics normalize the level for cross-ticker comparison:
- Distance above low = (Current price − 52-week low) / 52-week low
- Position in range = (Current price − 52-week low) / (52-week high − 52-week low)
A stock sitting exactly at its 52-week low scores 0 on the position-in-range metric; a stock at its 52-week high scores 1. Note that data providers may report intraday and closing-based versions separately — the two can differ materially in volatile names that wick down intraday and recover by the close.
IN TAPEBOARD¶
The live scanner surfaces stocks pressing their 52-week lows in real time, filterable by volume, sector, and distance from the low. Contrarian traders watch the low list for capitulation setups — a volume spike on the low day followed by a higher close can signal seller exhaustion. Value investors use the screen as a starting point for fundamental work rather than a direct buy signal. Risk managers reference the level as a hard stop anchor on existing long positions.