Bonds Bonds Bonds!
Today’s Change (Mar 17, 2026)
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A symphony is an automated trading strategy — Learn more about symphonies here
About
A momentum-driven tactical rotation around bonds with strategic tilts into tech or defensives, using RSI and price-vs-MA signals to evenly weight chosen ETFs within active blocks. Three blocks control BND/IEI vs SH, plus a Bond Baller path that leans toward QQQ or defensives depending on Treasury momentum.
What the strategy does in plain language:
- It looks at three decision blocks that tell it where to put money among ETFs that represent bonds, broad stocks, tech, and consumer staples, plus some inverse (short) ETFs for defense.
- Each block works like a mini-rule: if certain momentum and trend conditions are met, it allocates cash evenly across the assets in that block (equal-weight within the block). If the conditions aren’t met, that block isn’t funded. The blocks can fire independently, but the overall setup aims to keep a Bond-forward bias most of the time and shift toward stocks or defensive positions when momentum signals suggest it’s safer or more profitable to do so.
- Indicators used and what they mean (in simple terms):
• Relative Strength Index (RSI) measures how strong recent price momentum has been; higher numbers often mean “the asset has been rising hard,” lower numbers suggest it’s off its highs. RSI checks are done on different time windows and for different tickers to compare momentum among bonds, stocks, and inverses.
• Moving-average price compares the current price to a long-term average; if the price is above the moving average, the asset is considered to be in a uptrend (and vice versa).
• Relative comparisons compare RSI values across assets (e.g., BND vs SH) to see which side has stronger momentum.
- The assets involved: SPY (broad market), QQQ (tech-heavy Nasdaq), XLK (tech sector), XLP (consumer staples), BND (bond market), IEI (intermediate Treasuries), SHV (short Treasuries), TLT (long Treasuries), SH (short S&P 500 inverse), PSQ (inverse Nasdaq).
- Rebalancing: not continuously rebalanced; when a block’s conditions fire, the block’s assets are funded with equal weights (100/100 within that block). The corridor width is small (0.01), indicating only small tolerance around the signal before reallocation occurs.
- In short: it’s a conditional, momentum-driven rotation among bonds and selected stock/defensive ETFs, designed to tilt toward bonds most of the time and pivot toward equities or defensives when momentum and trend signals favor it.
A momentum-driven, bond-forward rotation that trims equity risk. With a lower market beta (~0.84), smaller drawdowns (17.9% vs SPY’s 18.8%), and a solid Calmar (~1.06), it offers steadier risk-adjusted gains and diversified upside for a resilient portfolio.
1M
3M
6M
YTD
1Y
3Y
Max
Performance
Compared to selected benchmarks
| Alpha | Beta | R2 | R | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.18 | 0.49 | 0.35 | 0.59 |
Performance Metrics
| Cumulative Return | Annualized Return | Trailing 1M Return | Trailing 3M Return | Sharpe Ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 530.44% | 10.27% | -1.77% | 0.2% | 0.59 | |
| 6,907.94% | 25.32% | -1.55% | -2.31% | 1.44 |
Initial Investment
$10,000.00
Final Value
$700,794.40Regulatory Fees
$1,987.57
Total Slippage
$13,160.00
Invest in this strategy
OOS Start Date
Dec 5, 2023
Trading Setting
Threshold 1%
Type
Stocks
Category
Multi-asset, momentum, tactical-asset-allocation, bonds-rotation, sector tilts
Tickers in this symphonyThis symphony trades 10 assets in total
Ticker
Type
BND
Vanguard Total Bond Market
Stocks
IEI
iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF
Stocks
PSQ
ProShares Short QQQ
Stocks
QQQ
Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1
Stocks
SH
ProShares Short S&P500
Stocks
SHV
iShares Trust iShares 0-1 Year Treasury Bond ETF
Stocks
SPY
State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
Stocks
TLT
iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF
Stocks
XLK
State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF
Stocks
XLP
State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF
Stocks