Whether you’re trying to make a living swing trading, day trading, or through options, coming up with a way to effortlessly and consistently uncover the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term gains will make or break your success.

So, what are the best short-term stocks to buy now in 2024? We’ll share a few great options right now, but the truth is, the market and individual companies are far too volatile to simply rely on these recommendations.

That’s why it’s more important that we walk you through how to find stocks to swing trade, how to find stocks to day trade, or align with any other short-term stock investment strategy you have in mind.

So, follow along as we walk you through what separates the most lucrative short-term trading opportunities from the rest so you can always find your next chance at profit. It’s easy with the VectorVest stock advisory, which brings the best trades to your fingertips daily.

In the meantime, here are the best short-term stocks in 2024:

  • Miniso Group (MNSO)
  • Meta Platforms (META)
  • Riot Platforms (RIOT)
  • Broadcom (AVGO)
  • Shift4 Payments (FOUR)

Learn more about any of these short-term trading stocks with a free stock analysis and capitalize today!

Overview of Short-Term Investments

While many invest with the goal of buying and holding a stock forever, or at least until retirement, this isn’t necessarily the most efficient method.

On the other hand, short-term trading allows you to earn higher profits and protect your portfolio from unnecessary downside exposure. You can time your trades smarter and earn more.

But what exactly constitutes a “short-term” investment? Generally speaking, any investment you have less than a 1-year time horizon on can be considered short-term. Some even say anything you convert to cash within 5 years is considered short-term.

Risks and Rewards of Short-Term Investments

Managing a short-term trading strategy takes more work than simply parking cash in a retirement account and letting it grow over the next few decades. Is it really worth it? Your goals and commitment level will come into play, but these are a great option because of their liquidity.

You can easily convert any short-term investment into cash should you need it – or more likely, when market conditions shift and you want to capture profit or cut losses.

More importantly, though, they provide a return much quicker. Whether you’re saving for a home purchase, vacation, or emergency fund, or even just trying to supplement your income for present-day expenses, short-term investments are going to be the best bang for your buck.

That being said, the trade-off for all these benefits is the workload that goes into overseeing this strategy. You need to be more involved in managing your investments and converting them to cash as conditions shift.

This can take a couple of hours a day depending on the specific strategy you employ. But there are ways you can streamline this and just spend a few minutes a day managing your investments – like using the best stock analysis app. More on that later.

Common Types of Short-Term Investments

We’re going to focus primarily on the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term goals, but we do want you to know that there are actually quite a few investment vehicles you have at your disposal. These all have their unique pros and cons:

  • Savings Accounts: You won’t earn high returns, but this is a secure and easy option. They’re FDIC-insured so your principal is safe, but interest rates are usually quite low.
  • Certificates of Deposit (CDs): These lock you into a fixed interest rate for a set period, typically a few months to a year. The downside is early withdrawal penalties, but returns tend to exceed those of savings accounts.
  • Money Market Accounts: These accounts provide higher interest rates than regular savings accounts and you get check-writing privileges. They’re more flexible but may require a higher minimum balance.
  • Treasury Bills (T-Bills): These government-backed securities mature in less than a year and are sold at a discount to their face value, with the difference being your return.
  • Short-Term Bonds: These mature within 1-3 years and offer a fixed income stream. Corporate and municipal bonds provide higher yields but risk varies based on the issuer.
  • Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): Short-term bond ETFs or money market ETFs can offer higher returns than cash but with slightly higher risk. You can easily trade these on stock exchanges for better liquidity with modest returns.

While each of these has its place in the context of short-term investing, they all fall short compared to stock investing. So, why should you focus primarily on the best short-term stocks?

Why are Stocks the Best Short-Term Investment?

We believe building a stock portfolio is something everyone should be doing, whether you’re trying to earn short-term income or prepare for retirement.

You can actually work on both goals simultaneously, which is one reason stocks are such a great investment vehicle. Here are all the reasons you should seek out the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term gains.

High Liquidity

All short-term investments need some level of liquidity so you can convert to cash quickly when conditions evolve or you find a better opportunity elsewhere. Since stocks are traded daily on global exchanges, they have inherently high liquidity.

This is in contrast to something like real estate, which could take months to convert to cash. Even traditional savings accounts have premature withdrawal penalties, and most bonds lock you in for at least a year.

Potential for Quick Profits

Let’s cut to the chase – you’re interested in short-term investments because you want quick cash. You really can’t beat the upside potential of stock investing, especially when you have the best stock picker app in your arsenal to consistently uncover the most lucrative opportunities.

Whether it’s earnings reports, new product launches, or even just market sentiment, stock prices are constantly fluctuating, presenting quick profit potential on a regular basis. You can earn double-digit gains overnight in some cases when you time your trades right.

Just be aware that with this upside potential comes downside exposure. Stocks can plummet in price just as quickly as they can explode in value – which is why you need to have a sound risk management strategy in place to cut losses on a stock and protect your portfolio from erosion.

Strategy Flexibility

Even within the realm of short-term trading, there are a myriad of strategies you can employ. The two most common will be swing trading vs day trading, which are quite similar just with different time horizons.

So what’s a swing trade? It involves buying and holding a stock for just a few days or weeks at most before selling it with the goal of earning a profit. Swing traders try to capitalize on short-term volatility to buy low and sell high.

The same is true of day trading, except your time horizon is even shorter as the name suggests. Day traders rarely hold a position overnight. It’s a more meticulous, high-stress strategy, but there’s a reason it’s so popular. The profit potential can be impressive.

You could even look into learning options trading for short-term gains, such as covered calls options. We have a separate guide on how to sell covered calls, as it’s a bit more complex.

The point is, there are so many ways to capitalize on the best short-term stocks, and this flexibility means anyone can find a strategy that aligns with their time availability, investment goals, and personal preferences.

Diversification Within Sectors

Diversification is essential even in a short-term strategy. The last thing you want is to see your portfolio blow up because you only held tech stocks and the industry as a whole struggled.

The good news is that you can easily diversify your portfolio across different types of stocks. You can diversify based on market capitalization, sector, industry, and more. This way, sudden market shifts aren’t going to have quite as profound an effect on your portfolio.

What are the Best Short-Term Stocks to Invest in Right Now?

Let’s get into what you really came here for, now. What are the best short-term stocks to invest in right now? As we said from the start, these are great opportunities today, but that might not be the case tomorrow, or the next day.

We’ll continue to update this list with present-day data so you can come back to find new opportunities as conditions change. Just remember, you’re better off being able to find opportunities like these on your own.

That’s why you need the Vectorvest stock analysis software. It shows you what to buy, when to buy it, and when to sell it on a daily basis so you never have to play the guessing game or stress about finding your next trade.

That being said, here are the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term.

Miniso Group (MNSO)

You might not be familiar with Miniso Group (MNSO), but you should get familiar with it. This stock is poised to rally as much as 50% over the coming months according to experts who have been tracking it.

The company has performed well in each of the last few quarterly earnings updates, showing revenue and EBITDA growth of 26% and 36% year over year respectively.

Yet, MNSO has fallen 17% through 2024. The market hasn’t treated the stock fairly, but this can only go on for so long with a forward P/E ratio of 15.3. This is one of the top aggressive stocks to buy now as it has expansion plans to open as many as 1,100 stores in the next 4 years.

Meta Platforms (META)

There’s really never a bad time to buy the Facebook parent company META. The stock is up nearly 60% through 2024 so far, and there is plenty of volatility to executing a swing trading strategy. It’s up 7% this week alone.

Even as an established company and a tech-sector staple, we still see an upside for META, too. Analysts do as well. They’re forecasting more improvements to finish the year strong, with earnings per share potentially climbing 37%.

It’s all in on the AI movement, with as much as $40 billion in capital expenditures budgeted for this year – and it expects this figure to grow dramatically in 2025.

Riot Platforms (RIOT)

Even as the crypto market has lulled a bit from its previous highs, stocks like Riot Platforms (RIOT) are still an attractive opportunity for short-term trading.

This bitcoin mining stock has captured the attention of many experts, some of which see 50% upside over the coming months. For one, the recent interest rate cuts could help push Bitcoin backup – and anytime Bitcoin climbs, so do stocks like RIOT.

But, the company itself has big plans for expansion – and if executed right, could display impressive revenue and EBITDA growth in an upcoming earnings report. This could be what is needed to turn things around after RIOT fell 57% so far this year.

Broadcom (AVGO)

Broadcom (AVGO) is one of the most-watched stocks right now since it’s well-positioned as a chip maker. In fact, many consider it a better value play than NVDA, which has soared in price and has finally reached the point we need to consider if it’s become overvalued.

AVGO has surged through 2024, up more than 56%. But the stock’s price has remained flat over the past 3 months. Its last big move was a 13% gain after the stock’s 10-for-1 split was announced alongside impressive quarterly earnings.

Many experts see AVGO finishing the year strong with a solid Q4 performance. We actually just took a look at this opportunity through the VectorVest stock software and see that AVGO is still considered a buy today – take a look and see if it aligns with your goals in our investment app for beginner traders.

Shift4 Payments (FOUR)

Last but not least on our list of the best short-term stocks in 2024 we have Shift4 Payments (FOUR), a digital payments processing company with clients mostly in restaurants, hotels, and casinos.

The stock has rallied just shy of 20% so far this year and is up 10% in the past month alone. This is likely attributed to the second-quarter earnings performance in August when the company beat the expectation on both the top and bottom lines.

But, experts believe FOUR is far from finished, with forecasted earnings growth of 32% for the full year. It’s expected to continue its trajectory into 2025 as well.

While competition has stiffened, Shift4 Payments expanded overseas, acquired new businesses, and clearly looks all in on growth opportunities.

What Makes a Good Short-Term Investment Stock?

There you have it, the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term gains! But this old adage couldn’t be more true when it comes to investing: give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day – teach a man to fish and he’ll never go hungry again!

So before we wrap up our guide to the best short-term stocks in 2024 we want to walk you through how to pick a stock so you can uncover the best opportunities yourself going forward.

Ample Volatility

Volatility is what gives you room for profits. You need some level of price movement, as it’s pretty hard to make money when a stock is trading flat unless you’re selling covered calls for income!

Whether it’s driven by market sentiment, earnings reports, or sector-wide news, stocks with high volatility give frequent opportunities to capitalize on price fluctuations.

The opposite is true, though – they also create a risk of losing value in your portfolio. This is why you need to make sure you have stop losses in place and balance your desire to chase profits with protecting against exposure to losses.

We have a guide on the most volatile stocks today if you want to learn more about what to look for in these types of stocks.

Market Timing and Catalysts

You can pinpoint stocks that are poised to move in one direction or the other by learning what affects a stock’s price. We touched on some of these above – earnings reports, company announcements, etc.

The tricky part is getting access to this information early on before it creates volatility, so you can get ahead of the trend. Free stock analysis websites can help with this.

You also need to be able to predict how a stock will move relative to the catalyst and execute accordingly. For example, if you anticipate positive earnings for a tech company, buying shares before the announcement could lead to profits if the stock jumps on good news.

Volume and Liquidity

We mentioned earlier that stocks have inherently high liquidity, but certain stocks have more trading volume than others. This is something you should take note of as you look for stocks to trade in the short-term.

Stocks with higher trading volumes have smaller bid-ask spreads, meaning there’s less price discrepancy when entering or exiting a position. Liquidity also minimizes the risk of being stuck in a position if the market moves against you.

Using Technical Indicators to Confirm Opportunities

Knowing how to analyze stocks is key to identifying, confirming, and executing opportunities. For short-term trading you’ll primarily focus on technical analysis, so read about the best stock indicators in our blog.

Moving Averages, Relative Strength Index (RSI), and MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) can help identify potential entry and exit points. For instance, RSI can show whether a stock is overbought or oversold, while moving averages can confirm whether the stock is in an uptrend or downtrend.

It’s worth learning how to combine fundamental and technical analysis for the most informed decision-making. There’s a lot that goes into this, and you want to spend as little time managing this strategy as possible while maximizing profits. That’s why you need the best stocks app for iPhone or the best stock app for Android.

Effortlessly Uncover the Best Short-Term Stocks With VectorVest

VectorVest is a proprietary stock rating system that distills complex technical and fundamental data into clear, actionable insights. It empowers you to win more trades with less work and stress, uncovering the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term on autopilot.

Rather than sitting in front of your screen for hours tracking technical indicators or reading through company press releases, you can just rely on 3 ratings: relative value (RV), relative safety (RS), and relative timing (RT).

These give you all the insights you need to make calculated, emotionless decisions. They sit on a simple scale of 0.00-2.00, with 1.00 being the average, making interpretation quick and easy. Better yet, you’re given a buy, sell, or hold recommendation for any given stock at any given time.

You’ll also have access to proprietary stock scanners that bring the best opportunities to your screen on a daily basis, whether you’re looking for falling stocks to buy, the best blue chip dividend stocks, best stocks for Roth IRA, best stocks for covered calls 2024, or even the best stocks to buy for beginners.

Learn more about what makes VectorVest a powerful addition to your investment arsenal and streamline your investment strategy today.

Risk Management Strategies

Even when you think you’ve found the best opportunity, it might not always pan out how you’d envisioned. Even the safe dividend stocks can lose value overnight.

This is why you need to have risk management strategies in place, understanding when to sell a stock for profit or to take a loss. This involves setting stop-loss orders to limit potential losses and sizing your positions appropriately to avoid over-exposure to any single trade.

ProfitLockerPro is another unique offering from VectorVest that can help with this, capturing profits when they’re there and cutting losses when necessary. It removes you from the process so you don’t have to stress about position management. Just rake in more profits with less work!

Final Thoughts on the Best Stocks to Invest in 2024 for Short-Term

Finding the best short-term stocks to invest in isn’t rocket science. We hope this guide has left you feeling clear and confident in your next steps.

Find more resources in our blog like how to find undervalued stocks, dividend vs growth stocks, when to buy stocks for beginners, highest paying dividend stocks, best stock screener for swing trading, best dividend stocks, buy the dip, or the best day of the week to buy stocks.

Otherwise, take what you’ve learned in this guide and put it into practice, finding the best stocks to invest in 2024 for short-term gains. Our tips paired with the VectorVest system set you up for simple, successful investing no matter your goals.

So, discover how VectorVest can guide your short-term investment decisions with precision today! Don’t work harder when you could work smarter with our stock analysis software.