StockVane Publishes Momentum Strategy Rules and Opens Backtest Settings to Readers

NEW YORK — October 7, 2026 — StockVane, a free U.S. stock research site, said on Wednesday that it has published the full rule set behind its Momentum strategy and added a tool that lets readers change the strategy's settings and view the resulting backtest figures.

The strategy ranks the roughly 100 large U.S. stocks the site covers by trailing 12-month return each trading day and checks each name against its own 200-day moving average. The model portfolio holds the 12 strongest names that remain above that average, weighted so that lower-volatility stocks receive larger allocations, and moves entirely to cash when the S&P 500 falls below its own 200-day average. The portfolio is rebuilt weekly, and a holding is removed immediately if it closes below its 200-day line.

According to the company's published track record, the strategy returned 226% from its first trade on Jan. 3, 2022, through early October 2026. The S&P 500 returned 74% over the same period and the Nasdaq-100 returned 94%, both including dividends. On those figures, $10,000 would have grown to about $32,600, compared with $17,400 and $19,400 for the two indexes. Annualized returns were 28.2%, 12.3% and 15.0%, respectively. The worst peak-to-trough decline was 22%, equal to the S&P 500's and less than the Nasdaq-100's 31%.

StockVane also disclosed figures that qualify the headline result. The strategy won 36.7% of its 501 closed trades and was profitable because the average winner was 1.82 times the size of the average loser. Realized volatility was 27% a year, above the roughly 18% the model targets, and the Sharpe ratio was 0.98.

Cash holdings were a large factor in the early years. In 2022 the model was in cash on an average of 81% of trading days, which the company cites as a major reason it gained while both indexes fell. In 2023 the strategy finished slightly behind the Nasdaq-100, returning 53.0% against 54.9%. In 2026 to date it trails both indexes, up 6.3% against 12.2% for the S&P 500 and 17.1% for the Nasdaq-100.

StockVane states that the stock list used in the backtest was selected with hindsight, using companies the site covers today, and that a real-money result going forward is 'very likely to be weaker than the backtest.' The results assume weekly rebalancing and a cost of 0.08% per trade, with no slippage and no taxes.

The company publishes a signal log of individual trades. Four recent entries illustrate the strategy's mechanics. LITE was removed from the portfolio on Sept. 17 at $893.61 for a 0.4% loss and repurchased on Sept. 24 at $929.04, about 4% higher; it last traded at $1,133.40, up 22.0% on paper. IBIDY was bought on Aug. 5 at $34.55 and sold a week later at $34.10, a 1.3% loss; bought again on Sept. 2 at $32.09 and sold on Sept. 17 at $30.53, a 4.8% loss; and bought a third time on Sept. 24 at $35.61. It now trades at $41.30, up 16.0% on paper. PRAX was bought on Aug. 12 at $386.33 and sold on Sept. 16 at $308.99 after falling below its 200-day average, a 20.0% loss. MRNA was bought on Sept. 2 at $150.81 and now trades at $187.46, up 24.3% on paper. Open positions are marked to the latest close and have not been sold.

Because every rule is published, readers can see which inputs drive the result, the company said. The new tool allows users to adjust parameters including the lookback window, the moving-average length, the number of holdings, the rebalance schedule and the assumed cost per trade, and to observe how the backtest changes. StockVane said the purpose is to show whether the strategy's historical edge persists across a range of settings or depends on a narrow set of assumptions.

StockVane operates a free research site for U.S.-listed stocks. Each covered company carries a quantitative rating, financial statements, valuation against its own history, analyst targets and dividend records, alongside free calculators. The site tracks a fixed list of roughly 100 U.S. companies.

The company notes that the Momentum results are a backtest, not the record of a live account, and were produced on a stock list chosen with hindsight. Past performance does not predict future results. The release states that nothing in it is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, that StockVane is not an investment adviser or broker, and that the strategy rules may change.

Media Contact

Contact person: Gavin Thorne, Editor
Company: Stock Vane
Phone: 540-349-6471
Website: https://www.stockvane.com/