Glossary / Fundamentals
Piotroski F-Score
Also called: F-Score
The Piotroski F-Score is a nine-point checklist of accounting tests, each scored one point if the company passes and zero if it does not. The total runs from zero to nine and summarises whether a set of reported financial trends improved or deteriorated between periods.
How it is measured
How is Piotroski F-Score measured?
The nine binary tests group into three families: profitability — positive net income, positive operating cash flow, an improving return on assets, and operating cash flow exceeding net income; leverage and liquidity — falling long-term debt, an improving current ratio, and no new share issuance; and operating efficiency — an improving gross margin and an improving asset turnover. Each passed test scores one point.
Why it matters
Why does Piotroski F-Score matter to a swing trader?
The F-Score is worth knowing because it is the clearest illustration of a whole class of scoring approaches: reduce a set of reported figures to pass/fail tests, then count. That design makes it transparent and reproducible from filings alone, and also blunt — it treats a marginal pass and a large one identically, and it moves only when new financials are filed, which for most companies means it is static for weeks at a time.
In Tapeline
Does Tapeline use Piotroski F-Score?
Not used by Tapeline. The Fundamentals factor reads reported profit margin, return on equity, earnings-per-share growth, revenue growth and an earnings multiple, each placed on a common scale.
Tapeline publishes the six factor names and the ordering of their weights. The numeric weights, the scoring equation and the band edges are not published.
Related
See this in the product
What the Fundamentals factor measures · The Fundamentals factor · Full methodology
Related terms
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General information about market vocabulary, written to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. Not investment advice — see the risk disclosure.