Frontrunner: XLI
Today’s Change (Mar 17, 2026)
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About
Frontrunner: XLI is a daily RSI-driven strategy that rotates between volatility hedges (UVIX/UVXY), levered sector bets (SOXL for semis, DUSL for industrials), and cash-like safety (BIL) based on XLI momentum and very short-term performance signals. High RSI triggers hedging; very low RSI prompts contrarian levered-long bets; otherwise the model prefers a defensive or selective levered tilt with volatility cues.
- Every day, the system looks at XLI’s momentum using a 16-period RSI. RSI is an indicator that compares average gains to average losses to gauge overbought/oversold conditions. A high RSI suggests strength/motential reversal risk; a low RSI suggests weakness/mean reversion potential.
- If RSI(XLI,16) is above 78, the strategy goes into a hedging mode and buys UVIX (a levered play on VIX futures) to protect against rising volatility when the sector looks extremely overbought.
- If RSI(XLI,16) is not above 78, the strategy enters an alternative path that starts with 100% cash. It then considers RSI(XLI, window around 14) being below 26 (very oversold) to tilt toward levered sector bets: it picks the weaker performer between DUSL (industrials) and SOXL (semiconductors) based on a short-window cumulative-return ranking, and allocates to that instrument.
- If the very oversold condition is not met, additional branches compare recent performance of volatility and levered ETFs (UVXY, SOXL, DUSL) using short lookbacks, and may allocate to UVXY or continue with the bottom-ranked levered ETF depending on cumulative-return thresholds relative to XLI. There is also a path that places a defensive position in BIL when none of the other conditions are triggered.
- All decisions revolve around 100% allocation to the chosen instrument (the code shows 100/100 weights in the core branches), with daily rebalancing. This creates a high-turnover, high-leverage portfolio that reacts to RSI signals and recent relative performance rather than traditional value/quality signals.
- In short, the scheme uses XLI as a front-runner indicator to decide between hedging volatility (UVIX/UVXY) and taking on levered bets in specific sectors (SOXL, DUSL), with occasional cash-like safety via BIL.
RSI-driven rotation hedges volatility and leverages top sectors. Out-of-sample Sharpe 1.28 vs 0.95; annualized return ~80% vs ~17%; drawdown 5.5% vs 18.8%; Calmar ~14.6; stronger, smoother upside vs S&P.
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Invest in this strategy
OOS Start Date
Oct 28, 2024
Trading Setting
Daily
Type
Stocks
Category
Rsi-driven, volatility hedges, levered sector bets, daily rebalance, equity exposure
Tickers in this symphonyThis symphony trades 6 assets in total
Ticker
Type