RS Rank (Relative Strength Rank)
Percentile rank of a stock's price performance versus the broader market over a lookback window.
The RS rank is a number from 0–100 that tells you how a stock's recent price performance compares to every other stock in the universe.
- RS 99 means the stock outperformed 99% of the market in the lookback window — i.e. it's a leader.
- RS 50 is exactly average.
- RS 15 means it lagged 85% of stocks — a laggard.
Swing Edge uses a multi-timeframe RS rank (3-month, 6-month, 12-month, weighted toward recent quarters) so a stock that suddenly rotates back into leadership doesn't get held back by an old slow period.
Why it matters
The strongest research (Stocks on the Move by Andreas Clenow, Minervini's books) consistently shows that buying high-RS stocks dramatically outperforms buying low-RS stocks — even though intuitively many traders want to "buy the dip" on laggards. Strong stocks tend to stay strong.
RS rank is one of the largest weights in the pre-breakout score. Stocks below RS 60 typically can't qualify for "Strong" or "Very Strong" labels.