Investing Research Articles

A subscriber asked about the performance of a 50-50 combination of a basket of momentum stock exchange-traded funds (ETF) and a basket of quality stock ETFs, specifically with comparison to a 50-50 combination of the Simple Asset Class ETF Value Strategy (SACEVS) and the Simple Asset Class ETF Momentum Strategy (SACEMS). To investigate, we employ… Keep Reading

Are stock quality strategies, as implemented by exchange-traded funds (ETF), attractive? To investigate, we consider six ETFs, all currently available (from oldest to youngest): Invesco S&P 500 Quality ETF (SPHQ) – seeks to track performance of S&P 500 stocks with the highest quality scores based on firm return on equity, accruals ratio and financial leverage… Keep Reading

Are stock and sector momentum strategies, as implemented by exchange-traded funds (ETF), attractive? To investigate, we consider nine momentum-oriented equity ETFs, all currently available, in order of longest to shortest available histories: Invesco Dorsey Wright Momentum ETF (PDP) – invests at least 90% of assets in approximately 100 U.S. common stocks per a proprietary methodology… Keep Reading

Does P/E10 (or Cyclically Adjusted Price-Earnings ratio, CAPE) usefully predict U.S. stock market returns? Per Robert Shiller’s data, P/E10 is inflation-adjusted S&P Composite Index level divided by average monthly inflation-adjusted 12-month trailing earnings of index companies over the last ten years. To investigate its usefulness, we consider in-sample regression/ranking tests and out-of-sample cumulative performance tests. Using monthly values of… Keep Reading

A subscriber asked about the track record of Steven Cress, VP of Quantitative Strategy and Market Data at Seeking Alpha. To investigate, we search for his annual top 10 stock lists, with results as follows: “Top Stocks For 2022” of 1/19/2022. “Top 10 Stocks For 2023” of 1/5/2023. “Top 10 Stocks For 2024” of 12/31/2024…. Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 11/3/25 through 11/7/25. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to your investing needs. Subscribers: To receive these weekly digests via email, click here to sign up for our mailing list.

A reader requested a test of the following hypothesis from the article “Gold’s Bluff – Is a 30 Percent Drop Next?” [no longer available]: “Ironically, gold is more than just a hedge against market turmoil. Gold is actually one of the most accurate indicators of the stock market’s long-term direction. The Dow Jones measured in gold is a… Keep Reading

Does bitcoin (BTC) price reliably exhibit momentum or reversion? To investigate, we try three tests: Calculate autocorrelations (serial correlations) between daily, weekly and monthly BTC returns and respective BTC returns for the next 10 intervals (for example, correlation of daily return with returns the next 10 days). Positive and negative correlations suggest momentum and reversion,… Keep Reading

Are some calendar months more likely to exhibit stock market continuation or reversal than others, perhaps due to seasonal or fund rebalancing/reporting effects? In other words, is intrinsic (times series or absolute) momentum an artifact of some months or all months? To investigate, we relate U.S. stock index returns for each calendar month to those… Keep Reading

A subscriber requested confirmation of the following relationship between U.S. M2 Money Stock and gold offered in “Why Gold May Be Looking Cheap”: “[O]ne measure I’ve found useful is the ratio of the price of gold to the U.S. money supply, measured by M2, which includes cash as well as things like money market funds,… Keep Reading