Best stocks · Penny Stocks
Best Penny Stocks — Live Top 30 Under $5 by Composite Score
Pure 'cheapest stocks' lists are a guaranteed loss machine — most names under $5 are cheap for a reason (deteriorating fundamentals, failed growth stories, dilution risk). The list below filters US tickers under $5 to a composite score of 35+, which removes the structurally broken names and leaves the small-cap candidates that at least have factor confluence. Tapeline's six-factor formula treats a $3 stock the same way it treats a mega-cap: trend, fundamentals, smart money, macro, momentum. Cheap isn't a strategy. Cheap with the score behind it might be.
| # | Ticker | Name | Score | Signal | Price | 1d |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CERS | Cerus Corp | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $2.66 | -1.48% |
| 2 | WTI | WTI | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.74 | — |
| 3 | ACRS | Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.56 | +1.12% |
| 4 | TUSK | TUSK | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $3.30 | — |
| 5 | OLPX | OLPX | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $2.04 | — |
| 6 | HURA | TuHURA Biosciences, Inc. Common Stock | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $2.44 | — |
| 7 | KOS | Kosmos Energy Ltd. | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $3.25 | — |
| 8 | FATE | Fate Therapeutics, Inc. | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $1.86 | — |
| 9 | ELDN | Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Common Stock | 100 | HIGH CONVICTION | $3.65 | — |
| 10 | HYLN | Hyliion Holdings Corp. | 99 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.04 | — |
| 11 | PLUG | PLUG | 98 | HIGH CONVICTION | $3.26 | — |
| 12 | CDXS | Codexis, Inc. | 98 | HIGH CONVICTION | $2.46 | -0.20% |
| 13 | OSUR | OSUR | 98 | HIGH CONVICTION | $3.08 | — |
| 14 | NKTX | NKTX | 98 | HIGH CONVICTION | $2.72 | — |
| 15 | ABSI | Absci Corporation Common Stock | 98 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.77 | +3.13% |
| 16 | EPM | Evolution Petroleum Corporation | 96 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.75 | — |
| 17 | GGB | GGB | 96 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.62 | — |
| 18 | RXT | RXT | 95 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.33 | — |
| 19 | DSX | Diana Shipping, Inc. | 93 | HIGH CONVICTION | $2.63 | — |
| 20 | KOPN | Kopin Corp | 92 | HIGH CONVICTION | $4.47 | — |
How the Penny Stocks ranking works
The Tapeline composite is a transparent weighted sum of six factors: Trend (25%), Relative Strength (20%), Fundamentals (15%), Smart Money (15%), Macro (15%), and Momentum (10%). For the penny stocks view, the emphasis is on score floor + trend — but the composite is the better summary signal than any single factor in isolation.
Read the full methodology on /how-it-works, or see how today's picks have performed historically on the public scorecard.
Questions about penny stocks on Tapeline
Why filter penny stocks by score at all?
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Because most stocks under $5 are there because the market has correctly priced in serious problems — declining revenue, balance-sheet stress, dilution. A score floor of 35 removes the worst of those and leaves cheap names where at least some factor (trend, fundamentals, or relative strength) is holding up. It's a quality screen applied to a price universe.
Are penny stocks dangerous?
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Yes. Penny stocks have wider bid-ask spreads, higher manipulation risk (pump-and-dump schemes are real), lower analyst coverage, and structurally higher bankruptcy rates than mid- and large-caps. Position sizing matters here even more than usual. Tapeline scores them the same way it scores everything else — the score doesn't fix the structural risk of the asset class.
What's a 'good' Tapeline score for a penny stock?
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Anything 60+ on a sub-$5 name is genuinely rare and worth attention — it means the composite is overcoming the natural drag of the small-cap discount. Most usable penny-stock setups sit in the 40–60 band: score isn't great but not terrible, with one or two specific factors that look strong. Click any row for the per-factor breakdown.
Do you cover OTC stocks?
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No. Tapeline's universe is NYSE/Nasdaq-listed US equities and ETFs. OTC-listed names (the venue most retail traders associate with 'penny stocks') aren't in the database. The under-$5 names here are all real exchange-listed companies; that already filters out a lot of the worst-of-the-worst.
How is this different from /best-stocks-for/under-5?
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Same filter, different framing. /under-5 is the price-anchored search-intent version; /penny-stocks is the strategy-anchored version. They surface the same names — duplicate listings exist because the search queries are different and ranking-wise we want to cover both.
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Snapshot cached 5 minutes. Sub-60s tick during US market hours. Not investment advice — see risk disclosure.