Strategies
Approaches to building and rebalancing a portfolio over time.
42 articlesWhat other people are testing
Every published strategy and every entered run, ranked. Anyone can enter one, no account needed.
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Turtle Trading Rules: The Complete System, and Its Entry Tested on 980 TradesRichard Dennis's turtle rules in full, and the part a backtest can isolate: the Donchian breakout entry, run over 22 US names. What the 20-day entry showed, and what the 55-day one did not.Read The Darvas Box: The Rules, and What a Screener Can Actually SeeNicolas Darvas's box theory rule by rule: how a box is drawn, the 52-week-high filter, the volume condition and the trailing stop, plus what a backtest shows.Read Anchored VWAP: Where to Set the Anchor, and What It Tells YouBrian Shannon's anchored VWAP explained: what the anchor does, the events worth anchoring to, how to read price against the line, and where it cannot be backtested.Read Oliver Kell's Cycle of Price Action: The Six SetupsOliver Kell's cycle of price action setup by setup: wedge pop, EMA crossback, base and break, exhaustion extension, and the 10/21 EMAs behind them all.Read The Pocket Pivot: The Volume Rule, and How to Scan For ItThe pocket pivot defined by Gil Morales and Chris Kacher: the up-day volume rule against the prior ten down days, the context conditions, and how to scan for it.Read Elder's Impulse System and Force Index: The Exact SettingsAlexander Elder's Impulse System (13-day EMA plus MACD histogram) and the separate Force Index, with their published settings and what each one actually forbids.Read Dan Zanger's Chart Patterns and the Zanger Volume RatioDan Zanger's method: the chart patterns he trades, the Zanger Volume Ratio and what it measures, his stated sell rules, and what a backtest can reproduce.Read Linda Raschke's Holy Grail Setup and 3-10 Oscillator SettingsLinda Raschke's Holy Grail setup, rule by rule, with her published indicator settings, 3-10 oscillator, 14-period ADX, Keltner Channels.Read Ripster EMA Cloud Settings: The Exact Pairs and TimeframesRipster's EMA cloud settings pair by pair: the 5-12, 8-9, 20-21 and 34-50 EMAs, what each one is for, and the timeframe he names for each.Read Adam Khoo's Strategy: What He Actually PublishesAdam Khoo's Value Momentum Investing, compiled from his own free posts: the business criteria, the 50/150 trend rule, and what stays behind the paywall.Read Only One Member of Congress Beat the Market: Out of 153 We Could TestWe copied every congressional disclosure from its publication date. One member of 153 finished ahead of the S&P 500, by nine points. The median trailed it by 230. An earlier version of this article listed thirteen winners; a bug in our own engine had invented twelve of them.Read We Backtested Every Member of Congress. Exactly One Beat the S&P 500Copying congressional stock disclosures from the date they became public, 153 members, 19,667 disclosed buys, 2012 to 2026. One beat a plain index fund, by nine points. The median member trailed it by 230. Nancy Pelosi ranks 96th.Read Josh Gottheimer Files More Stock Trades Than Almost Anyone in Congress. Copying All 943 Lost to the Index943 disclosed buys since 2017, twelve times Nancy Pelosi's count. Copying them from each filing's publication date returned +141.9% against the index's +206.8%: 65 points behind, on the largest sample in Congress.Read Nancy Pelosi's Stock Trades, Backtested: +80% Against the Index's +356%Copying every buy disclosed on Nancy Pelosi's filings, from the date each one became public, returned +80.2% against the index's +356.3%, 276 points behind, ranking her 96th of 153. Here's the full working, including the two caveats that matter and the bug that made an earlier version of this page overstate it fourfold.Read Tommy Tuberville's Stock Trades, Backtested: Including the Filing That Was 880 Days Late541 disclosed buys since 2021. Copying them returned +103.1% against the index's +94.2%, the only congressional record of 153 that finished ahead, by nine points. A quarter were options, and one filing disclosed 165 transactions going back to March 2024.Read Following Five Members of Congress at Once: What a Combined Strategy Actually DoesCopying a basket of five members instead of one. We ran the five best, chosen with full hindsight, against the five you could have picked on day one. Both lost to the S&P 500, by 41 and 129 points. Hindsight was not enough.Read Candlestick Patterns: The Cheat Sheet (and What They Actually Tell You)A plain-English reference to the candlestick patterns worth knowing, what each one looks like, what it claims, and where it holds up. Built to print, with no email gate, and honest about the part most cheat sheets leave out: a pattern on its own is not an edge.Read Golden Cross Strategy: What the 50/200 Cross Is and What It Actually Did, BacktestedThe golden cross is the most famous buy signal in technical analysis: the 50-day average crossing above the 200-day. Here's how it works, the rules for trading it, and a live backtest, run by our own engine, fees on, so you can see what the signal really did before you trust it.Read The RSI-2 Strategy: The Famous Mean-Reversion Rule, Backtested LiveRSI-2 is the best-known mean-reversion strategy in trading: buy an uptrending market when the 2-day RSI drops below 10, sell the bounce. Here's exactly how the rule works, why the standard 14-day RSI is the wrong tool for it, and a live backtest with fees on so you can judge it on real numbers.Read Pullback Trading Strategy: Buying the Dip in an Uptrend, Backtested LiveThe pullback is the bread-and-butter trend trade: wait for a rising stock to dip back to a moving average, then buy the bounce with a defined stop and target. Here's the full rule set: trend filter, entry, ATR stop, 2R target, and a live backtest with fees on, straight from our own engine.Read Breakout Trading Strategy: Trading the Range Break, Backtested LiveBreakout trading buys a stock the moment it clears a level it's failed at before, the logic, the classic Donchian channel rules the Turtles made famous, why most breakouts fail, and a live backtest with fees on so you can see what the mechanical rule actually earns.Read The Impulse Pullback Strategy: Catching the First Dip of a New Trend, BacktestedThe impulse pullback buys the first small dip after a fresh moving-average cross, early in a new trend, before the crowd trusts it. The exact rules (impulse, pullback, resumption entry, ATR stop, 2R target) and a live backtest from our own engine, fees included.Read A Swing-Trading Playbook: Six Setups, Risk in R, and the Red Flags to SkipThe whole playbook in one place: the six price setups we trade, how to size a position by the risk you're taking (not the cash you're spending), the checklist we run before every entry, and the warning signs that make us pass. Every setup links to a free backtest you can run yourself.Read We Tested Every Simple Strategy We Could Find. Only One Beat the Market: MomentumBuy the dip, the golden cross, DCA. We showed they all lose to buy-and-hold. Then we found the exception. A simple momentum rule returned about 25% a year over 15 years versus 14% for the S&P, and beat it in every era. Here's how it works, and the honest catch.Read We Backtested "Buy the Dip" on 9 Assets Including the S&P 500: It Lost to the Market Every TimeBuy the dip is the internet's favourite advice. We tested it mechanically on seven large stocks plus the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. It beat a few volatile single stocks, lost to most, and never once beat the index, for a reason most investors miss.Read Does Dollar-Cost Averaging Beat Going All-In? We Tested 9 Assets, and Lump-Sum Won 16 of 18 TimesDrip-feeding money in monthly feels safer than investing a lump sum. We backtested €100 a month against a single lump sum across nine assets. Lump-sum won almost every time, but the comparison most people actually face is a completely different one.Read We Ran 225 Backtests Hunting for a Strategy That Beats the Market: Here's the Only Thing That DidWe tested five mechanical rules across fifteen assets and three time windows, 225 backtests, looking for one that beats simply buying and holding. 84% lost. What actually won is not a rule you can use.Read Does MACD Actually Work? We Backtested 972 CrossoversMACD tested, not explained: 972 crossover trades across 22 US stocks and ETFs, how many beat simply holding, and what the indicator is still good for.Read High vs Low Momentum Markets: 2,630 Trades, TestedWe ran breakouts, trend crosses and pullbacks on 22 US-listed stocks and ETFs, split by whether the S&P 500 was above or below its 200-day average. The folklore came out backwards.Read How to Trade the Bearish Pin BarA long upper wick means price went there and could not stay. How to read a bearish pin bar, where it works, and the mistakes beginners make.Read How to Trade the Bullish Pin BarA long lower wick means sellers had the day and lost it. How to read a bullish pin bar, where it actually works, and what to ignore.Read Morning Star Pattern: What 49 Real Signals Actually DidWe tested the morning star on 22 US stocks: 49 signals in four and a half years, and buying them won under half the time. Rare, and no bottom-caller.Read Bearish Divergence: 192 Trades, TestedWe tested bearish RSI divergence on 22 US stocks: 192 trades, and buying into them won 51.0% against a 55.4% baseline. The pattern leans the right way, and the sample cannot settle it.Read Bullish Divergence: 127 Trades, TestedWe tested bullish RSI divergence on 22 US stocks: 127 trades, a 60.6% win rate against a 55.4% baseline. The right direction, too few to prove, and the biggest cluster of them arrived in one day at the 2022 bottom.Read One Black Crow: 619 Signals, TestedWe ran the One Black Crow on 22 US stocks: 619 signals. Buying into one won 50.6% of the time against a 56.0% baseline, which is the pattern working. What it is worth.Read One White Soldier: 595 Signals, TestedWe ran the One White Soldier on 22 US stocks: 595 signals, a 52.6% win rate against a 56.0% baseline. What the pattern is, and why beating 50% is not the test.Read How To Use the Stochastic Oscillator: 937 Signals, TestedWe bought 937 oversold stochastic readings across 22 US stocks. They won 55.9% of the time, against a 55.4% base rate for buying on any day at all. What the indicator does, and what it does not.Read How to Use Stock Screeners as a Beginner TraderThousands of tickers and no idea where to start. How stock screeners narrow that down, which filters matter first, and how traders really use them.Read Evening Star Pattern: What 74 Real Signals Actually DidWe tested the evening star on 22 US stocks: 74 signals, and buying them won 60.8% of the time, the opposite of what the pattern promises.Read Moving Averages Tested: 50/200 Returned 37%, 20/50 Returned 6%We ran the golden cross on 22 US stocks: 63 trades, +37% against +57% for buying and hold, at two thirds of the drawdown. Then we sped the averages up and it fell apart.Read Balancing Risk and Time in InvestingRisk only means something next to a time horizon. How to match a strategy to the years you actually have, rather than to the returns you want.Read High-Risk, High-Reward Trades: What the Numbers Actually SayLeveraged short-term trading is marketed on the upside and regulated because of the downside. Before you look at a single setup: what CFDs, options and short selling can actually cost you, what the EU rules exist to prevent, and how to test an idea without paying to learn it.Read