Good evening Buzzman,

You're probably not going to like my answer, but the definition of "Leaders" vs. "Best Rated Stocks" is subjective. Jerry Samet, who posts in the CANSLIM forum, regularly posts his leader's index, as viewed with a program called HGSI. Jerry's selection of those leader stocks is proprietary, but they are quality stocks as measured on a number of metrics. I don't know this for sure (Jerry, step in here), but I don't think Jerry updates his list on a steady cycle.

Within the HGSI package there is a "Leaders Index". Every night the list gets updated, representing the other extreme of updating. Time frames for quantifying are very different in these two examples, and time frames are important in the overall consideration of Leader performance.

An example of "Best Rated Stocks" is simply the IBD50. What makes these the "best rated?". Look no further than the CANSLIM acronym, which historically has been a good, consistent method at identifying candidates.

I think it is more important to start looking at sales and earnings, which drive revenues and profits. An underlying theme of "quality" or "leader" or "best rated" is that they all have growing sales/earnings. From here, there are as many definitions as there are opinions on the terms....

Regards,

pgd