Controlling for Volatility
Today’s Change (Mar 17, 2026)
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A symphony is an automated trading strategy — Learn more about symphonies here
About
Defensive, low-volatility, yield/quality ETF mix with inverse-volatility weights over a 60-day window and quarterly rebalancing to seek smoother returns and income.
What this strategy does, in plain language:
- It picks three ETFs that together aim to be steadier, pay income, and invest in high-quality companies.
- It looks at how bumpy each ETF’s price has been over the last 60 trading days to judge risk.
- It gives more money to the ETFs that have been less bouncy (inverse-volatility weighting).
- It rebalances the mix every quarter so the weights reflect recent risk rather than old signals.
- It’s designed to reduce big losses in bad markets while still offering some income through dividends and exposure to solid companies.
- Remember there are costs and risks from trading ETFs, including spreads, fees, and the possibility that past volatility isn’t a perfect guide to future risk. A prospectus review is advised before investing.
Defensive, income-focused ETF mix with inverse-vol weighting shows out-of-sample risk-adjusted strength: Sharpe ~0.80, Calmar ~0.62, beta ~0.75, max drawdown ~17.3% vs S&P ~22.1%—steadier returns and income with less downside than the S&P 500.
1M
3M
6M
YTD
1Y
3Y
Max
Performance
Compared to selected benchmarks
| Alpha | Beta | R2 | R | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.84 | 0.93 | 0.96 |
Performance Metrics
| Cumulative Return | Annualized Return | Trailing 1M Return | Trailing 3M Return | Sharpe Ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 385.09% | 13.59% | -2.02% | -1.16% | 0.83 | |
| 296.47% | 11.75% | -1.99% | 1.94% | 0.82 |
Initial Investment
$10,000.00
Final Value
$39,646.74Regulatory Fees
$1.59
Total Slippage
$7.46
Invest in this strategy
OOS Start Date
Feb 13, 2022
Trading Setting
Quarterly
Type
Stocks
Category
Defensive, low-volatility, yield, quality, etf-based, multi-factor