Unless you have Warren Buffett-like skill at valuing a company, don't do it. You can beat the indexes by buying leading high-growth stocks when they break out to new highs in a bull market. One often-overlooked place to find such gems is the tables of leading mutual funds in the print edition. Every day, four to eight top-rated funds grace the page. Focus on the top new buys.
Fund managers buy stocks only after conducting lots of research.
Think of these names as earning their seal of approval. IBD culls the holdings information from the filings of these funds with securities regulators. In most cases, the data reflect the most recently ended quarter. But sometimes the data go back two or three quarters. Some people say since this information is old, it's useless.