I’d like to weigh in on this.
I created a screen with a strong focus on sales here: https://www.portfolio123.com/app/screen/summary/232654?st=1&mt=1
This screen has six sales-related rules (the first three rules more or less define the universe). The first of these focuses on the overall 7-year sales trend. I think it’s a good screen, with a lot of helpful material both in the rules and in the “Info” write-up of those rules. If you really want to understand what has worked when looking at sales, this is a good place to start.
One could, if one wanted to, adapt each of these rules into a ranking node.
3Sales(0,Ann) + 2Sales(1,Ann) + Sales(2,Ann) - Sales(4,Ann) - 2Sales(5,Ann) - 3Sales(6,Ann) [higher better]
Abs (FRank (“Sales%ChgTTM”, #Sector) -50) [lower better]
LoopAvg(“Abs(Sales(Ctr,Qtr)-Sales(Ctr+1,Qtr))/Sales(Ctr,TTM)”,10,0) [lower better]
(Sales(0,Ann) + Sales(1,Ann) + Sales(2,Ann)) / AstTotTTM [higher better]
Pr2SalesTTM [lower better, in industry]
GMgn%TTM - GMgn%TTMInd [higher better]
That said, many of these rules work better in a screen than in a ranking system. They were designed for a screen, after all.
Personally, I prefer to use ranking over screening in general for reasons I laid out in the following article: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4083828-paradox-of-stock-screening
But while I believe screening has more pitfalls than ranking and that cleverly designed ranking can do almost anything screening can do, screening is far simpler to understand and should definitely be the first thing users should master. Jumping into ranking without trying screening first is like learning to swim in the deep end.
Moreover, there are some things that SHOULD be Boolean (Boolean means either yes or no, no ranking, like screening rules). For example, the “sales trend” rule in my screen probably works much better as a Boolean rule than as a ranking rule, and I wouldn’t be surprised if any of the others do too. It depends on what you’re looking for. You can use Boolean rules in a universe, a screen, or a ranking system.
Lastly, I don’t think we should get too dogmatic about this. Screening alone can work very well–especially if you’re using it as a first step to find stocks to research. Ranking alone can work very well, and the combination can work very well. That flexibility to use whatever system you want is what makes P123 the best web-based service for investor research.