I decided to run a short experiment for the last month or two testing out a few different strategies to mix things up. In no way did things scientifically, this was more an exercise to ease some of my recent market frustration and trade in some different new ways.
Here are the three different strategies and how they performed over the last 60 days
Strategy 1 Identifying Potential Trades with Zacks #1 Rank List:
I used Zack's #1 rank list as my starting point and then filtered using the VGM(value, growth, momentum) score. I would sort to view only the stocks with a rating of A(broke this rule sometimes). I did this a few times and would do some DD on the few companies identified, then determine whether to make the trade or throw it on a watchlist.
Here are a few of my positions and how they’ve done:
09/02/22 HLIT: 09/02/22 – Communication/tech company sol after a few days for ~9%
09/02/22 BAESY: European defense contractor that won some big contracts recently, not much movement exited down -2%
09/13/22 CHK: Energy company play that was intriguing, down -8%
08/04/2022 ESTE: Another energy play here, held onto this one for 2-3 weeks for a return of ~7%
08/05/22 HOG: Always wanted a Harley probably why this caught my eye – exited after 5 weeks for ~10%
08/10/2022 PPC: food company, down ~19%+ on this one and still holding
08/16/2022 SU: Exited this one at breakeven in early oct, another energy co from Zacks
Total Return: -3%
Strategy 2: Trading events with LevelFields
Trading on events definitely can be risky and my results here are surely biased due to the stocks & events I ended up choosing. I used LevelFields, which I like because it filters down news to the events that are significant and likely to affect share prices and separates that from all the endless news. I set it to track buybacks as well as government contracts, mass layoffs, and some other stuff. This strategy can be rough around the edges, but it’s been a unique way to find some companies to watch that I might’ve never seen.
08/03/22 RGA: Health insurance co, dividend increase trade, stock jumped pretty quick, regret selling this one for 4%
08/16/22 CCRN: Healthcare conglomerate, bought on news of buyback, sold a bit early here for 7% gain
08/30/22 FREY: Traded battery manufacturer on day of news about a $3b contract beginning in 2025. A day or two after took profits at 4.7%
09/07/22 TASK: Had been watching taskus for a while, pulled trigger on notification of a big buyback. Up ~5%+ in a few days and took some profits
09/06/22 COUP: Tried another buyback play here, was able to get out ~even 0%
9/21/22 BA: Bearish event but thought Boeing could rally, took loss at -8%
9/20/22 PLYA: Bought this on news(buyback), fell on news, down -9%
Total Return: +3.7%
I enjoyed trading on events and after some early success definitely learned that you have to be careful, as it can just as easily go the other way or an event can already be priced in, or a hundred other things can go wrong.
Strategy 3: “Buying the Dip”
This strategy is somewhat of my control, and the least scientific. If I noticed the NASDAQ or S&P dropping by more than a few percent (3-5%+), I would buy the dip. I ended up exiting some of these positions but planning on keeping most and continuing to DCA, looking at each trade individually for purposes of calculating return trade by trade.
08/22/22 SPY: down 9%
08/23/22 QQQ: sold on slight bump, down -2%
08/31/22 SPY: Positive few days after buying dip, sold some SPY pushed towards 410, 2.5% gain
09/21/22 SPY: Sold after qqq climbed back above 300 after a dip, -2%
09/23/22 QQQ: About breakeven here 0% gain
09/30/22 SPY: Little 5% gain here, we’ll see if this will change by end of week
Total Return: -4.5%
TLDR:
Traded for 60 days in a few new ways to keep things new, returns below
VGM Zacks #1 Rank List Return: -3%
Trading Events LevelFields Return: +3.7%
Buying the Dip* Return: -4.5%
SPY -8.2%
QQQ -10.5%
Had some issues formatting, so hopefully everything made it in accurately. Returns are calculated cumulatively counting return of each position at the time of writing, realized or unrealized, then summing the results. All position sizes for simplicity's sake are assumed to be the same size.
Didn’t do this to reach any significant conclusion with this tiny sample size, did it more as a fun experiment, next time I’d like to try a fun inverse strategy off of certain pundits/analysts and or poor stock-picking services, open to other weird ideas
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