The lineage
Mark Minervini has publicly acknowledged that William O'Neil's work was foundational to his own methodology. Both men identified that the greatest stock market winners throughout history share a common set of technical and fundamental characteristics in the weeks and months before their biggest advances. Both built systematic frameworks to capture those characteristics. The Trend Template is in many ways a distillation of the technical side of CAN SLIM — and Minervini has taken it further with additional precision tools like the Volatility Contraction Pattern (VCP).
What they agree on
Common Ground
- Only trade Stage 2: Both require stocks to be in established uptrends (Weinstein's Stage 2), above key moving averages, trending upward
- High relative strength: Both prioritise stocks outperforming the market — Minervini's 8th criterion (30%+ above 52W low) and O'Neil's 'L' factor (RS 80+)
- Near new highs: Both seek stocks near or at 52-week highs, not at bottoms
- Market cooperation required: Both require the broader market to be in an uptrend — fighting a bear market is not part of either system
- Volume matters: Both emphasise volume confirmation at breakout points
Three key divergences
1. Technical vs fundamental: Minervini's Trend Template is purely technical — eight moving average and price position criteria, zero fundamental requirements. CAN SLIM requires 25%+ quarterly earnings growth ('C'), three years of annual growth ('A'), and growing institutional ownership ('I'). In practice, Minervini does check fundamentals before entering, but they're not part of the template itself.
2. Quantitative vs pattern-based entry: Minervini's system is highly quantifiable — you pass or fail the template, period. The VCP adds a precise visual pattern for entry. O'Neil's system includes the Cup & Handle, which requires pattern recognition and is more subjective by nature. For a screener like Kasauti, the Minervini template is much easier to automate reliably.
3. Entry precision: Minervini focuses heavily on buying within 5% of a proper base breakout (the VCP pivot). O'Neil's Cup & Handle also has a precise entry (handle breakout on volume), but the pattern itself is broader and the cup can take months to form. Minervini's setups tend to be tighter.
The honest answer: Use both. Run Kasauti's Minervini filter to identify stocks with the right moving average structure. Sort by RS Rating (O'Neil's lens) to prioritise the strongest relative performers in that set. The overlap — stocks passing all 8 Trend Template criteria AND with RS 90+ — is the highest-conviction technical universe available on the NSE.
Head-to-head comparison
| Dimension | Minervini | O'Neil |
|---|---|---|
| Filter type | Purely technical | Technical + fundamental |
| Trend requirement | 8-point MA checklist | RS 80+ & Stage 2 |
| Entry pattern | VCP (tight base) | Cup & Handle |
| Earnings required | Not in template | 25%+ quarterly growth |
| RS minimum | Not specified in template | 80+ required, 90+ preferred |
| Automatable? | Yes — all 8 criteria quantifiable | Partially — L, M, S quantifiable |
| On Kasauti | Full 8/8 filter | RS Rating + RS Leaders preset |
The practical Kasauti workflow
Click the Minervini filter. This gives you every NSE stock currently passing all 8 SEPA criteria — your Stage 2, well-structured universe. Now sort the results by RS Rating, descending. The stocks with the highest RS Ratings in the Minervini-filtered universe are the ones where both methodologies agree most strongly. These are the setups both traders would find interesting. Check those first.