In the more than 10 years StreetAuthority has been in business, we’ve never come across a trading system that’s got this much potential.

In preparation for the inaugural issue of the advisory Maximum Profit, StreetAuthority’s latest investment advisory, Michael J. Carr took a close look at all the holdings in all of StreetAuthority’s newsletters — more than 130 stocks, partnerships and trusts across 10 portfolios.

The mission was to discover the No. 1-ranked stock — the stock that had the most potential for capital appreciation in the current climate — from a group of fundamentally strong holdings that had already been vetted by the StreetAuthority experts.

Of the dozens of choices, which single pick would rise to the top? Which stock would show the greatest momentum and value in the current environment? Which current StreetAuthority holding would rank highest in Mike’s all-important combined indicators of relative strength and cash-flow growth?

It turns out the No. 1-ranked stock as of last week was actually nearly five years in the making.

In the fall of 2008, StreetAuthority’s stock market strategists liked what they saw in a tiny aircraft leasing company based in Ireland.

Major global markets were in freefall at the time. However, this company was doing the lion’s share of its business in some of the larger emerging markets such as China, India, Russia and Mexico, which were continuing to grow.

Moreover, according to High-Yield PRO, leasing companies stood to benefit from rising demand for used aircraft, as airlines sought to contain costs in a beleaguered environment.

On Monday, Oct. 20, 2008, FLY Leasing (NYSE: FLY) — then known as Babcock & Brown Air — was added to the High-Yield PRO portfolio at $8.03 a share.

Fast-forward five years…

By today, FLY’s share price had more than doubled, to $17.12. Including dividends, FLY’s total return amounted to more than 150%, nearly twice the total return of the S&P 500 during the same span.

Over the past half-decade, FLY’s sales have risen an average of 67% a year. Earnings growth has averaged 11% a year during that time. And free cash flow increased an average of 21.8% annually (180% in the past year alone).

It was that last metric — cash-flow growth — in combination with a strong relative strength reading that catapulted FLY to the top of the rankings.

That’s not all Mike liked about FLY Leasing:

“FLY is currently yielding 5.2%. As I pointed out [recently], my system doesn’t specifically look for income stocks, but nearly a third of the stocks that are potential buys currently have a yield of greater than 4%. More than two-thirds of the stocks I look at pay a dividend.

FLY is also a value stock. FLY trades at a nearly 20% discount to its $20 book value. It’s also likely that the book value actually understates what the company could sell its assets for. FLY has consistently sold its aircraft at the end of leases for more than 120% of their book value.”

Recently, Mike issued a buy recommendation on FLY Leasing, based on the No. 1 ranking. Since then, FLY has outperformed the broader market by 9 percentage points. Look at how FLY has done compared with the S&P 500 since Mike recommended it on June 7:

Every two weeks in Maximum Profit, Mike will rank all the stocks in all the StreetAuthority portfolios — proven winners that show the strongest potential at that moment in time. Mike’s next pick will be revealed to his subscribers on Thursday after the market closes.

After this Thursday, Mike will add seven more holdings to his Maximum Profit portfolio from the universe of StreetAuthority stocks, capping the total at 10. Going forward, each issue will contain an adjusted ranking of the top 10, much as the college football rankings reflect a reordering after each poll.

Based on Mike’s analysis, we think FLY is a good choice for investors at these levels. If you want to learn more about Mike’s Maximum Profit system, click here.