The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Today’s Change (Mar 17, 2026)
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A symphony is an automated trading strategy — Learn more about symphonies here
About
A daily, regime-driven tactical strategy that uses momentum signals to switch between leveraged equity exposure in bull markets and defensive hedges in bear markets, selecting top assets by trend and momentum and allocating 100% across a small, equal-weighted basket.
- The strategy rebalances every day and uses a market-regime framework to decide which subgroup to run (Bull Market, Bear Market, Dip Buy, Sideways/Deleverage, etc.).
- In bull regimes, it tends to favor a small, top-rated subset of leveraged stock ETFs (e.g., 1–3 assets) chosen using a moving-average return screen over about 21 days, and it may add volatility hedges to limit drawdowns.
- In bear regimes, it shifts toward defensive/hedged exposures (short or inverse ETFs, bonds, defensive sectors) and a different top-N selection that emphasizes downside protection.
- Signals come from momentum and trend indicators (short-window RSI and moving-average-price comparisons) and from longer-term performance checks (e.g., 60–252 day cumulative returns).
- The plan uses 100% cash-equivalent allocation spread across the selected assets (equal weighting within the chosen group).
- There are named sub-strategies (e.g., Dip Buy, Bear Market Strategy, Sideways Market Deleverage, Nasdaq Crash Territory) that trigger under specific signal conditions, allowing the model to respond to pullbacks, consolidations, or regime shifts.
- The universe includes a mix of leveraged equity ETFs (for amplified exposure), broad-market ETFs (AAPL/QQQ-like exposure proxies), volatility-related funds (for hedging), commodity/bond proxies, and some currency/defensive exposures. The intent is to participate in trends when favorable while providing protection as volatility and regime risk rise.
Out-of-sample annualized return: 62.8% vs 24.9% for the S&P; Calmar ~1.51; Sharpe ~1.18. Regime-driven momentum with hedges aims for stronger risk-adjusted gains; bear drawdowns can be larger (~41.7%).
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Invest in this strategy
OOS Start Date
Sep 29, 2023
Trading Setting
Daily
Type
Stocks
Category
Multi-asset, tactical allocation, regime-driven, momentum, leveraged etfs, volatility hedges
Tickers in this symphonyThis symphony trades 25 assets in total
Ticker
Type
BSV
Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF
Stocks
DIA
State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust
Stocks
IEF
iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF
Stocks
IWM
iShares Russell 2000 ETF
Stocks
PSQ
ProShares Short QQQ
Stocks
QQQ
Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1
Stocks
SCO
ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil
Stocks
SHV
iShares Trust iShares 0-1 Year Treasury Bond ETF
Stocks
SMH
VanEck Semiconductor ETF
Stocks
SOXL
Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF
Stocks