Factor Alpha
Today’s Change (Nov 5, 2026)
—
A symphony is an automated trading strategy — Learn more about symphonies here
About
A monthly stock strategy that buys growth stocks when the broad market looks strong, and otherwise rotates into the 3 best-performing U.S. stock factor funds from the past month.
Once a month, the strategy checks whether the U.S. stock market is in an uptrend by seeing if SPY (a fund tracking the S&P 500) is above its 120-day average price.
If yes, it puts everything into IVW, a fund focused on faster-growing large U.S. companies.
If not, it compares 5 “stock styles” and buys the 3 that did best over the last 21 days: momentum, quality, value, small-cap value, and low-volatility.
Grow in up markets; diversify with top factor ETFs in down markets. Monthly, rules-based strategy delivering ~19.3% out-of-sample return, Calmar ~1.02, and ~18.8% max drawdown—nearly SPY risk/return with broader factor diversification.
1M
3M
6M
YTD
1Y
3Y
Max
Performance
Compared to selected benchmarks
| Alpha | Beta | R2 | R | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.01 | 1.02 | 0.91 | 0.95 |
Performance Metrics
| Cumulative Return | Annualized Return | Trailing 1M Return | Trailing 3M Return | Sharpe Ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 478.11% | 14.22% | -1.04% | -0.34% | 0.87 | |
| 560.49% | 15.38% | -7.16% | -4.64% | 0.88 |
Initial Investment
$10,000.00
Final Value
$66,049.46Regulatory Fees
$24.05
Total Slippage
$199.84
Invest in this strategy
OOS Start Date
Nov 2, 2022
Trading Setting
Monthly
Type
Stocks
Category
Factor rotation, trend following, tactical allocation, us equities, monthly rebalance
Tickers in this symphonyThis symphony trades 7 assets in total
Ticker
Type
IVW
iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF
Stocks
MTUM
iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF
Stocks
QUAL
iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF
Stocks
RPV
Invesco S&P 500 Pure Value ETF
Stocks
SPY
State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
Stocks
USMV
iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF
Stocks
VBR
Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF
Stocks