Research · 2021-08-25 → 2026-08-22
We Backtested 92 Investment Strategies (2021–2026): The Full Ranking
Same window, same rules, same benchmark for every strategy in our catalog: equal-weight buy-and-hold of each strategy's top screened picks, $10,000 starting capital, measured against SPY. No cherry-picking — the losers are in the table too.
92
strategies backtested on identical terms
+13.5%
median annualized return across the catalog
51/92
beat SPY's +70.6% total return over the window
The full ranking
| # | Strategy | Ann. return | Total | Sharpe | Max DD | Vol | Holdings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Insider Buying | +59.4% | +922.6% | 1.48 | -42.8% | +37.0% | 10 |
| 2 | 52-Week High Momentum | +58.4% | +892.3% | 1.39 | -42.0% | +38.5% | 10 |
| 3 | Micro Cap | +58.4% | +892.3% | 1.30 | -42.7% | +41.2% | 10 |
| 4 | Capital Efficiency | +56.8% | +843.0% | 1.29 | -49.0% | +40.4% | 10 |
| 5 | Buyback Champions | +56.5% | +835.5% | 1.39 | -40.4% | +37.4% | 10 |
| 6 | Emerging Growth Leaders | +55.9% | +817.1% | 1.49 | -38.8% | +34.3% | 10 |
| 7 | High Beta | +55.4% | +801.7% | 1.22 | -49.4% | +41.6% | 10 |
| 8 | Statistical Arbitrage | +54.5% | +775.2% | 1.41 | -40.3% | +35.3% | 10 |
| 9 | Quality Factor | +53.3% | +742.7% | 1.13 | -47.9% | +43.1% | 10 |
| 10 | Disruptive Innovation | +50.4% | +665.0% | 1.16 | -42.0% | +39.4% | 10 |
| 11 | Net-Net Working Capital | +50.0% | +654.6% | 0.71 | -67.9% | +64.0% | 10 |
| 12 | Clean Energy Transition | +49.0% | +630.6% | 1.28 | -40.8% | +34.5% | 10 |
| 13 | Technology Leaders | +48.2% | +611.3% | 1.01 | -54.6% | +43.2% | 10 |
| 14 | Long/Short Equity | +48.0% | +608.1% | 1.38 | -40.9% | +31.3% | 10 |
| 15 | F-Score Value | +47.4% | +592.8% | 1.09 | -47.1% | +39.2% | 10 |
| 16 | Healthcare Innovation | +46.4% | +570.1% | 1.04 | -45.7% | +40.0% | 10 |
| 17 | ESG Integration | +39.1% | +419.4% | 1.16 | -32.6% | +29.8% | 10 |
| 18 | Impact Investing | +38.8% | +413.0% | 0.94 | -42.3% | +36.3% | 10 |
| 19 | Earnings Momentum | +37.4% | +388.6% | 0.99 | -38.6% | +32.9% | 10 |
| 20 | Price Momentum - 12M | +37.4% | +386.9% | 1.12 | -32.8% | +29.0% | 10 |
| 21 | Exclusionary Screening | +35.0% | +347.6% | 0.90 | -40.2% | +33.6% | 10 |
| 22 | Artificial Intelligence Leaders | +34.1% | +332.7% | 0.86 | -42.1% | +34.4% | 10 |
| 23 | High Growth Momentum | +31.3% | +288.4% | 0.78 | -43.2% | +34.0% | 10 |
| 24 | Merger Arbitrage | +31.1% | +286.0% | 0.61 | -44.5% | +42.9% | 10 |
| 25 | Index Inclusion | +29.1% | +257.1% | 0.77 | -39.6% | +31.6% | 10 |
| 26 | Machine Learning Alpha | +28.2% | +245.2% | 1.10 | -25.8% | +21.3% | 10 |
| 27 | Post-Earnings Drift | +28.2% | +245.1% | 0.75 | -36.6% | +31.2% | 10 |
| 28 | GARP - Growth at Reasonable Price | +27.2% | +231.6% | 1.00 | -28.9% | +22.5% | 10 |
| 29 | Quality Growth | +26.8% | +227.1% | 0.96 | -25.2% | +22.9% | 10 |
| 30 | Option Premium Selling | +26.6% | +224.7% | 1.15 | -20.9% | +19.1% | 10 |
| 31 | VIX Timingproxy basket | +26.6% | +224.0% | 0.76 | -40.1% | +28.7% | 10 |
| 32 | Carbon Transition | +26.4% | +221.1% | 0.60 | -49.1% | +35.8% | 10 |
| 33 | Small Cap Growth | +25.6% | +211.2% | 0.58 | -51.1% | +36.2% | 10 |
| 34 | Wide Moat | +25.4% | +209.6% | 0.68 | -37.4% | +30.3% | 10 |
| 35 | ESG Leaders | +25.4% | +208.8% | 0.78 | -38.0% | +26.6% | 10 |
| 36 | Small Cap Value | +21.1% | +160.1% | 0.33 | -66.2% | +50.1% | 10 |
| 37 | Mean Reversion RSI | +21.1% | +159.5% | 0.59 | -32.6% | +27.5% | 10 |
| 38 | Contrarian Value | +20.8% | +156.3% | 0.29 | -71.2% | +55.0% | 10 |
| 39 | Deep Value Investing | +20.5% | +153.9% | 0.32 | -66.3% | +50.0% | 10 |
| 40 | Value-Momentum Combo | +17.8% | +126.6% | 0.66 | -24.1% | +19.9% | 10 |
| 41 | International Developed Value | +16.4% | +113.4% | 0.64 | -26.0% | +18.3% | 10 |
| 42 | Currency Carry | +16.4% | +113.0% | 0.58 | -25.7% | +20.0% | 10 |
| 43 | Market Neutral | +15.6% | +106.4% | 0.48 | -28.0% | +22.9% | 10 |
| 44 | Magic Formula | +15.3% | +103.5% | 0.47 | -34.8% | +22.3% | 10 |
| 45 | Relative Strength Sector | +14.8% | +99.3% | 0.47 | -25.1% | +21.3% | 10 |
| 46 | Quality-Value-Momentum | +13.5% | +88.0% | 0.48 | -21.7% | +18.1% | 10 |
| 47 | Acquirer's Multiple | +13.5% | +87.9% | 0.38 | -28.8% | +23.1% | 10 |
| 48 | Turtle Trading | +12.1% | +77.1% | 0.74 | -19.0% | +9.9% | 10 |
| 49 | Leveraged ETF Decay | +12.1% | +76.8% | 0.20 | -50.4% | +36.4% | 10 |
| 50 | Commodity Momentum | +11.6% | +72.8% | 0.70 | -18.1% | +9.8% | 10 |
| 51 | Low Volatility Quality | +11.5% | +72.3% | 0.46 | -14.5% | +14.6% | 10 |
| 52 | Fama-French 5-Factor | +10.8% | +66.7% | 0.26 | -30.1% | +23.5% | 10 |
| 53 | Covered Call Income | +10.6% | +64.9% | 0.40 | -16.9% | +14.7% | 10 |
| 54 | Spin-Off Investingproxy basket | +10.5% | +64.2% | 0.35 | -24.9% | +16.5% | 10 |
| 55 | Tail Risk Hedgingproxy basket | +10.5% | +64.2% | 0.35 | -24.9% | +16.5% | 10 |
| 56 | Convertible Arbitrageproxy basket | +10.5% | +64.2% | 0.35 | -24.9% | +16.5% | 10 |
| 57 | Factor Timing | +9.6% | +58.0% | 0.30 | -24.9% | +16.4% | 10 |
| 58 | Sector Rotation | +9.3% | +55.8% | 0.22 | -30.7% | +20.6% | 10 |
| 59 | Seasonal Trading | +9.2% | +55.1% | 0.27 | -24.2% | +16.4% | 7 |
| 60 | Moving Average Crossover | +9.2% | +54.9% | 0.27 | -24.1% | +16.4% | 7 |
| 61 | Volatility Targeting | +9.2% | +54.9% | 0.29 | -22.8% | +15.3% | 5 |
| 62 | Defensive Rotation | +8.2% | +47.8% | 0.24 | -16.7% | +13.9% | 6 |
| 63 | Dual Momentum | +8.1% | +47.5% | 0.31 | -20.4% | +10.9% | 10 |
| 64 | Systematic Global Macro | +8.1% | +47.4% | 0.37 | -16.4% | +8.9% | 10 |
| 65 | Trend Following | +7.3% | +42.2% | 0.35 | -12.1% | +7.4% | 10 |
| 66 | Low Volatility | +6.3% | +36.0% | 0.12 | -12.4% | +13.0% | 10 |
| 67 | Minimum Variance | +6.3% | +35.3% | 0.10 | -22.4% | +14.9% | 10 |
| 68 | Fama-French 3-Factor | +6.2% | +35.2% | 0.08 | -22.0% | +18.3% | 10 |
| 69 | Consistent Earners | +6.0% | +33.5% | 0.08 | -21.1% | +15.1% | 10 |
| 70 | Dividend Growth | +5.6% | +31.4% | 0.06 | -16.8% | +15.0% | 10 |
| 71 | 60/40 Balanced | +5.5% | +30.3% | 0.10 | -17.7% | +7.0% | 10 |
| 72 | Global Macro Discretionary | +5.4% | +29.9% | 0.07 | -20.7% | +9.3% | 9 |
| 73 | VIX Term Structure | +5.2% | +28.7% | 0.01 | -69.5% | +43.7% | 5 |
| 74 | Activist Investing | +4.9% | +27.1% | 0.01 | -34.1% | +20.0% | 10 |
| 75 | AQR Style Premia | +4.8% | +26.4% | 0.01 | -20.5% | +8.7% | 10 |
| 76 | Dividend Value | +4.6% | +25.4% | 0.00 | -35.7% | +19.6% | 10 |
| 77 | Dogs of the Dow | +4.2% | +22.8% | -0.04 | -24.1% | +15.3% | 5 |
| 78 | Emerging Markets Value | +4.1% | +22.2% | -0.02 | -25.6% | +29.1% | 6 |
| 79 | Permanent Portfolio | +3.5% | +18.5% | -0.13 | -20.6% | +9.6% | 10 |
| 80 | Risk Parity | +3.4% | +18.4% | -0.16 | -20.2% | +8.0% | 10 |
| 81 | Golden Butterfly | +3.4% | +18.0% | -0.14 | -21.4% | +9.8% | 10 |
| 82 | All-Weather Portfolio | +2.9% | +15.1% | -0.20 | -16.5% | +9.3% | 10 |
| 83 | Managed Volatility | +2.4% | +12.6% | -0.27 | -20.7% | +8.7% | 9 |
| 84 | High Yield Dividend | +0.4% | +1.8% | -0.25 | -33.0% | +17.4% | 10 |
| 85 | REIT Income | +0.1% | +0.5% | -0.24 | -35.9% | +19.1% | 10 |
| 86 | Treasury Rotation | -0.2% | -0.9% | -3.92 | -2.6% | +1.3% | 5 |
| 87 | Preferred Stock Income | -4.8% | -21.5% | -1.05 | -28.0% | +9.1% | 8 |
| 88 | Crypto Blue Chips | -7.6% | -32.6% | -0.81 | -53.1% | +15.2% | 10 |
| 89 | DeFi Yield & Growth | -11.2% | -44.7% | -0.50 | -76.2% | +31.9% | 10 |
| 90 | Layer 2 Scaling Thesis | -11.8% | -46.7% | -0.85 | -62.0% | +19.5% | 10 |
| 91 | Crypto Value — Distance from ATH | -11.9% | -47.0% | -0.72 | -66.0% | +23.2% | 10 |
| 92 | Crypto Momentum | -60.7% | -60.4% | -1.21 | -74.9% | +54.1% | 10 |
How we ran it
- One identical harness. Every strategy: equal-weight buy-and-hold of its top screened picks (up to 10, ranked by alignment score), $10,000 initial capital, 2021-08-25 to 2026-08-22, daily closes from our production data pipeline, SPY as the benchmark.
- Real screens, not stories. Each strategy's holdings come from its live screening criteria (P/E, momentum, quality, volatility bounds…) — the same screens shown on every strategy page, where you can inspect each pick and exactly which criteria it met.
- Failures are reported. Every run completed.
Read this before quoting the table
Portfolios are formed from each strategy's screen as of the run date and held unchanged across the whole window. That means look-ahead and survivorship effects flatter the absolute numbers — a company that passes a quality screen today often looks good precisely because the last five years went well for it. The ranking is most useful for comparing strategies against each other under identical treatment, not as a forecast of forward returns. Rows marked "proxy basket" had no stable screenable stock list, so a representative category basket was used and labelled as such.
Past performance does not predict future results. This article is educational research, not investment advice.
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