Met David Ryan in 1996 at the Ritz Carleton in Buckhead.
In 1996 I had met Dave Ryan at the Ritz Carleton in Atlanta and from that meeting we agreed I was to fly to Los Angeles to meet Bill as they were making a decision on what to do with their fund. I believe David was running it at the time and I was being interviewed to represent their NEW USA mutual fund. The fund had been launched in 1992 and was sold to MFS in 1997.
David Ryan’s ANTS is a technical indicator/screener (not a formal ranking system like a persistent index) he developed while managing the New USA Growth Fund at William O’Neil + Company. It flags individual stocks showing signs of strong institutional accumulation over a short (~15-trading-day / 3-week) window:
- Up on at least 12 of the past 15 days (momentum).
- Price up ~20–25% over that period.
- Volume up ~20–25% (or higher average volume) over that period.
These “ants” (small marks originally plotted on charts) often appear early in big winners as large buyers accumulate positions gradually without spiking the price too fast. It is available as a list or chart marker on IBD MarketSurge, and as free/paid indicators/screeners on TradingView (including versions developed with Ryan’s input), Deepvue, and similar platforms. It is a dynamic, short-term stock-selection tool used within a broader CAN SLIM / growth-momentum approach, not something that produces a stable, rebalanced basket suitable for an ETF.
