$DS v4 Pops - K-1 Free | VXX edition | UGL, SVXY, ERX removed | SHARED
Today’s Change (Mar 17, 2026)
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About
A four-block, RSI-driven, VXX-centered rule-based strategy that tilts between 3x levered tech/broad-market ETFs and volatility hedges, while excluding certain ETFs to stay K-1 friendly. It substitutes UVXY/VIXM with VXX, aiming for upside capture with volatility protection.
What it does, in plain language:
- It borrows heavily from VXX as its main volatility hedge instead of other volatility products. It replaces UVXY and VIXM exposure with VXX so the hedging signal is tied to front-end VIX futures. It intentionally removes UGL, SVXY, and ERX from consideration.
- It then runs four big decision blocks. Each block checks several momentum signals on different market proxies (mostly short-term momentum and price trends of tech and broad-market ETFs) to decide what to buy and how much to buy.
- The signals are mostly based on the short-term momentum indicator known as RSI (a simple gauge of whether price has been moving up or down a lot in a short window) with a 10-day lookback, compared against various tickers (examples include tech/equity proxies like QQQ, QQQE, XLK, SPY, XLP, and others).
- When a block’s conditions are met, the system tends to assign a full allocation (often 100 out of 100 price weight) to a highly levered ETF like TECL (tech bulls), SOXL (semiconductor bulls), or SPXL (S&P 500 bulls), or to a bear/hedge mix like TECS (bear tech) alongside VXX-based hedges.
- Some blocks use top/bottom screening with moving-average rules to pick the strongest candidate within that block, and then the rule assigns weights to that asset. Other blocks aim to diversify within a regime by mixing different levered plays and hedges.
- The final configured “rebalance” is set to none with a tiny corridor (0.1), meaning the strategy is not rebalanced on a fixed cadence; instead, signals within blocks decide entries and exits as new signals appear.
- The end result is a dynamic, regime-aware mix of leveraged equity bets (primarily tech and broad-market bulls) with a VXX-based volatility hedge, switching blocks as momentum and volatility signals change. The naming suggests a versioned approach (v4) and a design choice to be K-1 free by excluding certain funds.
- The overall aim is to capture large upside moves in stable periods while protecting against sharp drawdowns during volatility spikes, using a carefully curated set of tickers and momentum screens rather than a simple, single-indicator rule.
Out-of-sample edge: ~38.8% annualized return vs SPY ~21%, aided by a VXX-based volatility hedge. Captures big upside in levered tech/broad-market bets, with volatility protection, but with higher drawdown (~46%).
1M
3M
6M
YTD
1Y
3Y
Max
Performance
Compared to selected benchmarks
| Alpha | Beta | R2 | R | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.3 | 0.73 | 0.06 | 0.25 |
Performance Metrics
| Cumulative Return | Annualized Return | Trailing 1M Return | Trailing 3M Return | Sharpe Ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 168.4% | 12.92% | -1.77% | 0.2% | 0.73 | |
| 2,655,119.75% | 250.46% | 0.56% | -0.47% | 2.54 |
Initial Investment
$10,000.00
Final Value
$265,521,974.50Regulatory Fees
$1,284,180.14
Total Slippage
$9,212,305.44
Invest in this strategy
OOS Start Date
May 3, 2024
Trading Setting
Threshold 10%
Type
Stocks
Category
Volatility-hedged levered equity, multi-block momentum, uvxy->vxx substitution, k-1 free, rule-based
Tickers in this symphonyThis symphony trades 24 assets in total
Ticker
Type
BIL
State Street SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF
Stocks
BND
Vanguard Total Bond Market
Stocks
FAS
Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3x ETF
Stocks
IEF
iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF
Stocks
QQQ
Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1
Stocks
QQQE
Direxion Shares ETF Trust Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index ETF
Stocks
SOXL
Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF
Stocks
SPXL
Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bull 3x ETF
Stocks
SPY
State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
Stocks
TECL
Direxion Daily Technology Bull 3x ETF
Stocks