What is CANSLIM? William O’Neil’s 7-trait growth stock system

CANSLIM (also written CAN SLIM) is William J. O’Neil’s seven-trait system for finding growth stocks before they make their biggest moves. Growth Stock Analyzer scores every US stock on all seven traits and re-ranks the market after each close.

What the seven CANSLIM letters mean

• C — Current Quarterly Earnings: The most recent quarters’ earnings per share versus a year ago. O’Neil wanted at least 25% growth; the biggest winners often show triple digits. We read EPS straight from SEC filings and rank every stock 1–99.
• A — Annual Earnings Growth: Multi-year earnings growth, a three-year EPS growth rate, to confirm the latest quarter is not a one-off. The market’s great growth stocks compound their earnings year after year.
• N — New: Products, Highs, Management: Something new driving the business: a new product, new leadership, or a stock breaking to new price highs. O’Neil found the best moves begin as a stock makes new highs, not new lows.
• S — Supply and Demand: Big volume behind the move. A scarcer share supply plus volume surging above its average is the footprint of real institutional demand, not a thin drift higher.
• L — Leader or Laggard: Buy the leaders, not the laggards. We measure it with a Relative Strength rating, the top price performers over the last year, and rank each stock against its own industry group.
• I — Institutional Sponsorship: Funds drive sustained advances. We track accumulation-vs-distribution and genuine 13F institutional ownership, so you can own what the big money is actually buying.
• M — Market Direction: Three out of four stocks follow the market, so even a flawless CANSLIM stock struggles in a downtrend. We gauge the whole market’s health with a live M Score before risking capital.

Frequently asked questions

What does CANSLIM stand for?

CANSLIM (also written CAN SLIM) is an acronym for seven traits of winning growth stocks: C for Current quarterly earnings, A for Annual earnings growth, N for New product, management, or price high, S for Supply and demand, L for Leader or laggard, I for Institutional sponsorship, and M for Market direction.

Who created the CANSLIM strategy?

CANSLIM was developed by William J. O’Neil, founder of Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), and popularized in his book How to Make Money in Stocks. He built it by studying the traits shared by the market’s biggest winners across decades.

What is a good CANSLIM score?

On our 1–99 scale, higher is better and 90+ means a stock is stronger than 90% of the market on the weighted CANSLIM traits. The rating is capped by how many of the seven criteria a stock actually passes and by its price, so a top score reflects a genuine, complete leader.

Is CANSLIM still effective today?

CANSLIM is a durable framework because it targets the fundamentals (earnings, sales, institutional demand) and price behavior that have driven big winners for decades. We compute every trait live on every US stock so the system runs on today’s data, not a static screen.

How do I screen for CANSLIM stocks?

We score every US stock on all seven CANSLIM traits and re-rank the whole market after each close. Create a free account to see the full daily CANSLIM leaderboard, each stock’s letter-by-letter breakdown, and its 7-trait profile.