Companies with negative cash flow have to borrow. A positive cash flow is a sign of smart management and a strong business. The big guys avoid such stocks they would have a hard time liquidating rapidly. But you can take advantage of opportunities the dinosaurs cannot. You want a company whose management's money is in the pot.
Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility.
Basically, it is a number that shows how much a stock's price moves relative to the total market. A stock with a beta of 1 moves up and down with the market. For growth stocks, you want high beta, beta higher than 1. You want a portfolio that contains a bunch of negatively correlated high-beta stocks. No matter what the market does, you want something soaring.