We Aim to Minimize Loss and also Beat the Market

Stock Portfolio 1-2

Stock Portfolio 1-2 fund universe is comprised of 50 tickers which are in the growth category of the russell 1000. These are the largest by market cap of that group, with all above a market cap of about $30bn. Many different sectors are represented and they all have a history of at least 10 years. The group is selected to provide high returns throughout the market cycle and a diversity of correlation values to allow protection in downturns. Our goal is providing a rotation strategy for better returns and smaller drawdowns than just buying all of them and holding them, or buying a ETF or mutual fund. There are two ETF funds in the universe- SHY which is a very stable treasury bond fund, and the SPY which tracks the S and P 500. Two instances of SHY are included. If the system ranks SHY the highest, all funds in the portfolio are rotated to the SHY. If SHY is ranked 2nd then 1/2 of funds are allocated to SHY. This is intended to allow shifting away from stocks when market conditions require it such as during downturns, or at times it could be periods of extremely overbought stocks. Two stocks or funds are selected each month.

Rotation System Results vs the SPY. Hover mouse for details.

 

 

Risk Adjusted Return metrics- Stock Portfolio 1-2 with Rotation, Compared to SPY over the same period

MAR and Sharpe ratio Risk Adjusted Return.  Our favorite Risk Adj. Return Metric is MAR= (CAGR/Drawdown), while Sharpe ratio is the more commonly found risk adjusted metric. Sharpe= (CAGR-risk free rate(3%))/volatility. The reason we prefer MAR is that it penalizes return based on drawdowns- No one wants big drawdowns, we might need to take money out during a drawdown or we might lose faith during a drawdown and sell. The Sharpe penalizes for volatility which is associated with risk. However the only "bad" volatility is negative volatility and typically negative and positive volatility are not separated. Higher returns = higher volatility, everything else being equal, and we do want higher returns, right?

 

 

 

See below for the ticker list.

Ticker List- Stock Portfolio 1-2

If anything is blank, either it was not available from data source, or it does not apply (ie if no dividend, it will be blank)

TickerNameShare priceDiv yldPE RatioPrice/Bookhalf yr perf %
SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust334.061.90NaNNaN34.57
AAPLApple Inc.112.000.7234.5127.0982.88
MSFTMicrosoft Corporation204.030.9935.6313.1647.68
AMZNAmazon.com, Inc.3116.22NaN122.0421.5389.38
GOOGLAlphabet Inc.1515.76NaN34.515.0237.29
HDThe Home Depot, Inc.276.332.2024.98NaN43.08
CMCSAComcast Corporation44.672.0917.652.4125.99
UNHUnitedHealth Group Incorporated301.481.6417.134.5421.64
PEPPepsiCo, Inc.135.813.0427.4514.9616.84
MOAltria Group, Inc.43.597.94NaN14.1719.03
KOThe Coca-Cola Company51.063.2823.5212.296.02
MCDMcDonald's Corporation218.002.3034.44NaN27.69
VZVerizon Communications Inc.59.794.2212.873.9316.27
MMM3M Company166.173.6018.508.6722.14
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation121.465.4113.445.2217.26
GILDGilead Sciences, Inc.65.584.27NaN4.44-7.01
BAThe Boeing Company160.23NaNNaNNaN1.84
HONHoneywell International Inc.166.452.1921.226.3621.82
SBUXStarbucks Corporation85.271.9376.68NaN36.68
UPSUnited Parcel Service, Inc.158.872.5631.3731.3383.23
CVSCVS Health Corporation57.403.459.201.126.23
TXNTexas Instruments Incorporated136.372.6225.7316.4540.66
ACNAccenture plc234.771.3730.449.2853.18
NKENIKE, Inc.118.000.8572.7022.1654.70
LLYEli Lilly and Company148.092.0223.7932.4216.03
COSTCostco Wholesale Corporation339.130.8240.138.9421.33
LOWLowe's Companies, Inc.161.891.5221.0327.3576.08
GEGeneral Electric Company5.950.6715.751.56-17.01
JNJJohnson & Johnson147.782.7526.356.1417.14
ADBEAdobe Inc.471.35NaN62.7621.0567.11
FDXFedEx Corporation232.791.1645.843.20131.38
NFLXNetflix, Inc.482.03NaN85.1522.6852.47
NVDANVIDIA Corporation486.580.1390.3021.80127.67
CRMsalesforce.com, inc.243.10NaN635.385.8376.26
ADPAutomatic Data Processing, Inc.133.442.7623.219.841.24
NOCNorthrop Grumman Corporation338.881.7623.205.6713.60
SYKStryker Corporation202.021.1447.935.9430.81
ITWIllinois Tool Works Inc.195.462.3828.2325.7336.91
GISGeneral Mills, Inc.58.543.3516.444.4316.98
KMBKimberly-Clark Corporation148.502.8919.92187.5321.13
BDXBecton, Dickinson and Company235.781.3582.462.756.17
MMCMarsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.115.781.6129.227.1124.31
CTSHCognizant Technology Solutions Corporation68.181.3422.163.2333.85
MCKMcKesson Corporation150.371.1127.524.4821.53
KRThe Kroger Co.34.372.0713.222.9019.30
SPGIS&P Global Inc.348.790.7832.47395.9555.55
PFEPfizer Inc.36.074.2614.513.0818.75
XOMExxon Mobil67.445.21NaN1.7810.99
SHYiShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF86.491.73NaNNaN0.35
SHYiShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF86.491.73NaNNaN0.35

Buy All funds and hold scenario below- NOT ROTATION- to use to compare to rotation strategy. With re-balancing. This group of Russell stocks has performed well without any rotation.

Buy All Tickers Case- NOT Rotation- for Comparison

With rotation strategy shown below. This strategy ranks the top two tickers and only holds two tickers each month. If the top tickers are not held already at the first of the month, they are liquidated and top tickers are purchased. If one decides to follow this system, there is no question of when to buy or sell- its only at the first of each of  month and only hold two funds. The system assumes trades are done at the end of trading on the first trading day of each month. This is pretty standard for tracking results in the industry. Of course the user will not be able to both buy and sell at the last instant of the trading day. This is not a big deal in our opinion. The important thing is to know what the system assumes when tracking performance and we feel its best to minimize the time between selling and buying to stay invested. We like to use limit orders for both buys and sells to minimize the chance of getting on the wrong side of a spread that's too wide. Your broker can explain how to use limit orders. For performance tracking we use the actual closing prices, and not real world trades which allows us to automate and backtest.

Rotation System- buy top two ranked tickers each month

Yearly summary up to current year shown below.

Yearly Summary for Rotation System, now including YTD

Year200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024
Rotation % Return26.24-14.4235.0862.814.888.92121.108.846.6648.9330.337.2826.0476.5326.99-10.8182.2229.92
SPY % Return2.30-35.8621.9112.110.3514.5625.2412.31-2.1512.0519.33-6.9229.8513.5229.53-20.2824.1120.31
Improvement23.9421.4413.1650.714.53-5.6495.86-3.468.8136.8811.0014.19-3.8163.02-2.549.4758.119.61

By month history shown below. This plot gives the viewer a feel for month by month success and failure rates. No this is not a magic machine that turns a profit every month! Remember the "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" phrase wise people have warned you about. We feel we have something really valuable here but be sure to read our disclaimers in terms of service. Many investment tip services will make claims of "we made XXX% on ticker ABC and XX% on ticker DEF" type of history but don't  mention their losses. We try to get the whole story out there for a full review, before the user spends a dime.

Month by Month Results

Statistical summary below. Have a look and see what you think, the numbers speak for themselves! We recently replaced column charts with this table, easier to scan we thought but please let us know if you want the columns back.

Statistical Summary

InvestmentTotal RetCAGRDrawdownMAR(CAGR/dd)Sharpe(3%)mnth > 0%ave MnthVol(Ann)
Rotation %8554.8928.42-17.251.651.1160.752.3122.82
SPY %301.388.10-54.240.150.2964.490.7817.59

We have more details in our members only page, such as each and every ticker buy and sell history with performance metrics along the way in a sortable table that's fun to explore. We of course have the new picks each month over there as well.

Below are the results since going live on Aug 1, 2014. Note that the algorithm is improved starting in November but this shows how we did in real time rather than a backtest of only the new algorithm. The individual picks have moved to the membership page for security and privacy reasons.

To begin using this portfolio and be able to view our other offerings visit our products page.
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