RPS Common Questions Compilation (FAQ)

RPS (Relative Price Strength) is an indicator that measures the ranking of a stock's price performance relative to other stocks in the entire market over a specific period. The value range is from 1 to 99,RPS=85 indicates that this stock's gain has exceeded the gains of 85% of stocks in the entire market. RPS ≥ 80 is usually regarded as the standard for strong stocks and is the core indicator of William O'Neil's CANSLIM stock selection method.

RPS calculation is divided into three steps:
First step, calculate the gains and losses of all stocks within the specified period (e.g., 250 trading days);
Second step, sort all stocks by gains and losses from low to high;
Third step, calculate the ranking percentile of the target stock:RPS = (排名位次 / 总股票数) × 100
For example, in a market with 5000 stocks in total, if a stock ranks 250th in gains (from low to high), then its RPS = 250 = (4750 / 5000) × 100 = 95。

RPS (Relative Price Strength)Is a horizontal comparison indicator, measuring the percentile ranking of a stock's gains relative to other stocks in the entire market, reflecting the relative strength of the stock in the market.
RSI (Relative Strength Index)Is a vertical oscillation indicator, measuring the ratio of rising to falling prices of a stock itself over a period of time, used to determine overbought and oversold conditions.
The names are similar but the concepts are completely different; do not confuse them.

William O'Neil's standard is RPS≥80, that is, stocks whose gains exceed those of more than 80% of stocks in the entire market are considered strong stocks. RPS≥90, and even RPS≥95. The higher the RPS, the greater the stock's relative strength to the market, but it also needs to be comprehensively judged by combining factors such as trading volume and fundamentals.

The RPS Stock platform provides five standard periods:
• RPS20(about 1 months): Reflecting recent short-term momentum
• RPS50(about 2.5 months): Medium to short-term trend
• RPS90(about 4.5 months): Medium-term trend, most commonly used
• RPS120(about 6 months): Medium to long-term trend
• RPS250(about 1 years): Long-term trend, William O'Neil's original version indicator
Commonly used in practice RPS90 and RPS250 combinationTo screen for strong stocks.

Basic steps for RPS stock selection:
1. Set the RPS threshold (e.g., RPS90 ≥ 80 and RPS250 ≥ 80)
2. Multi-cycle resonance confirmation (high RPS in short, medium, and long cycles)
3. Confirmation combined with volume (strong stocks typically accompanied by volume surge)
4. Confirmation combined with fundamentals (profit growth, industry prosperity)
5. Set stop-loss position (exit when falling below key support)

RPS is also effective in A-shares. The A-share market is characterized by obvious sector rotation and strong capital concentration effects, with stocks having high RPS often being the current focus of capital attention. Practical data shows that A-share stocks with RPS250≥90 have significantly higher average gains in bull markets than the broad market. However, A-shares have higher policy sensitivity and should be used in conjunction with the market environment.

Hong Kong stock RPS is calculated based on the relative ranking of the entire Hong Kong stock market (about 2500 stocks). Hong Kong stocks are influenced by both southbound funds and foreign capital, with high RPS Hong Kong stocks usually being the key targets for institutional capital layout. Hong Kong stock liquidity differentiation is severe, suggesting screening stocks with RPS ≥ 80 and average daily trading volume ≥ 500 ten thousand HKDto avoid liquidity traps.

US stocks are the origin of the RPS indicator. William O'Neil's IBD (Investor's Business Daily) publishes US stock RPS rankings daily. US stock RPS features large market depth and good liquidity, with more stable RPS signals. In US stock practice,RPS ≥ 90 and buy when breaking through the high point 52 weeks agois a classic CANSLIM buy signal.

Japanese stocks (Tokyo Stock Exchange) are the world's third largest stock market, with about 3800 stocks. Japanese stock RPS is greatly affected by the yen exchange rate. When foreign capital flows in, strong stocks' RPS are concentrated in export-oriented enterprises and tech stocks. In recent years, high RPS Japanese stocks are concentrated in semiconductor, auto parts, and defensive sectors.

CANSLIM is the stock selection system proposed by William O'Neil, in which S represents Relative Price Strength (relative price strength), i.e., RPS. In the CANSLIM system, RPS is one of the seven core indicators used to confirm the market dominance position of stocks. O'Neil believes that truly great bull stocks usually have their RPS already in a high position (≥ 80) before launch.

RPS is a trend-tracking indicator, not a predictive indicator. High RPS indicates that the stock's performance over the past period is stronger than the market, with a momentum effect, but does not guarantee continued strength in the future. The effectiveness of RPS is based onmomentum effect (Momentum Effect)—the market principle of strong staying strong—but RPS signals will fail when market styles switch. It is recommended to use RPS as a screening tool rather than the sole decision-making basis.

RPS Stock platform data is updated after each trading day's close, usually completing full market RPS calculation and ranking updates within 1 to 2 hours after close. Update times for A-shares, Hong Kong stocks, US stocks, and Japanese stocks vary slightly and are based on each market's closing time.

Differences in RPS values across platforms mainly come from three aspects:
1. Sample space differences(full market vs specific sectors)
2. Different definitions of calculation cycles(calendar days vs trading days)
3. Different data sources and processing methods
RPS Stock uses all listed stocks in the full market as samples, with trading day calculation cycles, to ensure data accuracy and comparability.

No. High RPS is only one of the screening conditions and is not a buy signal. Buy timing also needs to consider technical patterns (whether at a breakout point), volume (whether accompanied by volume surge), market environment (bull or bear market), and fundamentals (whether profits support). In bear markets, even high RPS stocks may continue to decline.

Low RPS stocks are not within the recommended range of the CANSLIM system, but it does not mean they cannot be bought. Value investors may focus on low RPS but high-quality fundamentals stocks (distressed reversal). However, statistical data shows that in trend markets, high RPS stocks have significantly better average performance than low RPS stocks.

A sudden sharp drop in RPS usually means the stock has experienced a significant decline in recent periods compared to the market average, losing its relative dominance. This may be a sell signal, especially when RPS falls from 80+ to below 60, indicating that market funds are withdrawing from the stock.

RPS Stock currently covers four major markets:China A-shares(all listed stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen markets, about 5300 stocks),US stocks(NYSE + NASDAQ, about 8000 stocks),Hong Kong stocks(Hong Kong Stock Exchange, about 2500 stocks),Japanese stocks(Tokyo Stock Exchange, about 3800 stocks), totaling over 20,000 stocks' real-time RPS data.

On the RPS Stock platform, enter the RPS ranking page for the corresponding market; the system defaults to sorting by RPS ≥ 250 from high to low. You can switch different cycles (RPS ≥ 20/50/90/120/250) to view rankings; use multi-period screening (simultaneously meeting multiple cycles RPS ≥ 80); screen by sector to view specific industry RPS rankings.

Automatically updated after each trading day's close. A-shares data is typically completed between 16:00 and 17:00; Hong Kong stocks between 17:00 and 18:00; US stocks on the next day between 6:00 and 8:00 (Beijing time); Japanese stocks between 16:00 and 17:00 (Beijing time).