Skip to content
Chapters 17 / 22

Minervini's Trend Template

Minervini's Trend Template comes from Mark Minervini, a US investor famous for his disciplined, rules-based approach to buying leading stocks in uptrends. It is one of the most respected technical screens in investing. InvestorStack applies all ten conditions across the market and lists the stocks that pass.

The man and the philosophy

Mark Minervini is a self-taught investor who won the US Investing Championship twice, with returns of 155% and 334% in the years he won. His approach is rooted in a simple belief: own only the strongest stocks in confirmed uptrends, and only buy them when the odds are stacked in your favor.

His trend template is the gate. Before a stock is even considered, it must pass ten conditions that together prove it is in a clean, strong uptrend with leadership characteristics. If a stock fails any condition, it is not a candidate. There is no negotiation.

The one idea

The trend template is a checklist that separates the sustainably strong stocks from the temporarily strong ones. It demands:

  • The stock is near its highest price, not near its low.
  • The short, medium, and long trends are all lined up, pointing up.
  • The stock is strong relative to the market.
  • The stock is not extremely extended in either direction.

Pass all ten and you have a stock in a confirmed, healthy uptrend. Fail any one and the setup is missing a leg.

The ten conditions, exactly

A stock qualifies only when all ten are true on the same day.

1. RS rating above 70. The stock is in the top 30% of the universe by relative strength. It is beating most of the market.

2. Close above the 50-day SMA. The stock is riding above its medium-term trend.

3. Close above the 150-day SMA. The medium-long trend is also below price.

4. Close above the 200-day SMA. The long-term trend is up, and the stock trades above it.

5. The 50-day SMA is above the 150-day SMA. The medium trend is above the medium-long trend.

6. The 50-day SMA is above the 200-day SMA. The medium trend is above the long trend.

7. The 150-day SMA is above the 200-day SMA. The medium-long trend is above the long trend. Conditions 5, 6, and 7 together put all three moving averages in a proper uptrend stack.

8. The close is at least 30% above the 52-week low. The stock is not hovering near its lows. It has real distance from its low point.

9. The close is within 25% of the 52-week high. The stock is near its high, not extended far below it. Minervini likes stocks making progress toward new highs, not stalled far off them.

10. The 200-day SMA is rising. Today's 200-day SMA is higher than it was 30 trading days ago. The long-term trend is actually advancing, not just flat.

A confirmed Minervini leader with price above stacked 50, 150, and rising 200-day averages, near its 52-week high, and RS above 70

Why the moving averages stack matters

Conditions 5 through 7 are the heart of the screen. They demand the three moving averages be in a specific order, from shortest on top to longest on the bottom.

50 > 150 > 200

That is the signature of a healthy uptrend. The short trend is above the medium trend, which is above the long trend. When the averages are in this stack and rising, the stock is in an orderly, durable advance. When the stack is broken, the trend is not confirmed.

The same idea shows up in simpler form all over technical analysis: a stock is strongest when price rides above all its moving averages and those averages are stacked from fastest to slowest, top to bottom. When the stack inverts, price below all the averages with the long one on top, the trend is down. The Minervini template is the disciplined version of this rule applied line by line.

Why the 52-week position matters

Conditions 8 and 9 demand the stock be neither too close to its low nor too far from its high. Minervini does not want a stock that is still early in recovery near its lows. He wants a stock that has already established distance from the low and is pressing toward the high.

A stock more than 25% below its 52-week high has not yet broken out in his view. One within 25% and 30% above its low has the strongest relative position. The sweet spot is a stock that has come a long way off its low and is closing in on its high.

This is a state scan, not a transition scan. A stock that passes all ten conditions qualifies and tends to stay on the list for weeks while it keeps working. That is by design. The template is a filter for what type of stock to own, not a timing signal.

What Minervini is actually hunting

Minervini's goal is not modest returns from average stocks. He calls his method a search for superperformance, for the handful of stocks each cycle that make a group of investors rich. His observation is that those outsized winners tend to share the same technical shape before they run: a strong leader, in a confirmed uptrend, building a base on falling volume, before breaking out to new highs.

The trend template is the first filter in that search. It removes the noise so the few real candidates stand out. By demanding the trend, the relative strength, and the price structure all agree, it steers you toward the raw material of superperformers and away from the stocks that merely look okay on one measure.

That is why the screen is deliberately strict. Catching one genuine superperformer early is worth more than a dozen mediocre setups. The template is built to help you be ready when the exceptional stock appears.

Turning the list into action

The trend template tells you what to own, not when to buy. A stock can pass all ten conditions and be extended, sitting far above its moving averages after a long run. That is why the template is paired with the VCP, which adds the tightening base and higher lows that mark the actual entry zone near a pivot.

Use the list to build your watchlist of confirmed leaders, then wait for the tighter setup. A stock on the trend template list, pressing toward a new high, forming a low-volume base, is the candidate worth watching for the breakout. The template narrows the field. The base and the volume decide the entry.

Why it matters

Minervini's philosophy is that you do not need to catch every stock. You need to own the strongest stocks. The trend template is the most disciplined way of defining "strongest" that exists.

A stock that passes all ten conditions has the trend, the relative strength, and the price structure all aligned. That alignment is what gives it the best odds of continuing. The template removes the guesswork from the question "is this stock in a good uptrend?" The answer is mechanical, and it is yes or no.

Reading it in context

The trend template is a strong pre-filter, but Minervini pairs it with more:

  • It is the entry gate. The VCP scanner builds directly on it by adding a tightening-base condition to the same ten requirements.
  • A stock passing the template and showing a fresh basis of higher prices is the ideal setup.
  • Run it alongside the business. A stock passing the trend template while the company also guides for strong growth is the rare combination of chart and story.

Where it fits

Minervini's Trend Template is the strictest of the trend scanners. It is the parent of the Minervini VCP scanner, which requires the same ten conditions plus a volatility contraction pattern.

A stock on this list is in a confirmed Stage 2 leader profile. It belongs in the same conversation as the Stage 2 Breakout and the relative strength scanners, which provide the same filter from different angles.