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MonkeyMarkets's avatar

Super satisfying strategy!

The logic is so simple and legible and pure. Thanks for sharing.

Here's my quick spin on it. The only new logic of note is that I added a short-term corporate bond (SPSB) SMA trend as a risk-off signal. I'm using BTAL as my risk-off asset (going short high-beta and long low-beta fits the theme of the strategy nicely).

https://quantmage.app/grimoire/a39719a0a458f3109f17666196786896

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Jaewon Jung's avatar

Cool, thanks for sharing!

SPSB signal with BTAL seems to mostly help during 2022.

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MonkeyMarkets's avatar

Using the longer backtest IGSB ticker you can see it de-risk in GFC, 2018, COVID, and 2022. Semi-reliable signal? If even short-term corp bonds are down, it's often danger. (BTAL, however, might not work as a reliable else.) https://quantmage.app/grimoire/5b0d1c2a4bacd78c98c74fd2afc639fd

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Freebird Kim's avatar

Great Idea!! Thank you very much. :)

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Martin Schwoerer's avatar

excellent!

SPLV+SPHB actually did ring a bell. I had a something in my shoebox of discarded strategies that used those two assets, but with much worse performance (CAGR 12.91%, MDD -27.83%).

https://tinyurl.com/56fazphm

I'm actually considering investing a small sum into the QLD variant. Thank you!

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Jaewon Jung's avatar

Glad to hear that you liked it, Martin! Yeah, using them as a signal turned out to be much more potent than using them as assets.

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Simon Jacques's avatar

Please explain in plain English the SMA12 rules. I looked at your mathematical definition and don't understand it. It is just a 12 month rate of change comparison between two ETFs?

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Jaewon Jung's avatar

Imagine you have a piggy bank 🐷

Every month, you check how many coins are in your piggy bank. You write down the number for one year period (12 start-of-the-month tallies and today's coins).

Now, here's what SMA12 Momentum does:

1. It adds up the 13 tallies together

2. Then it divides by 13 to find the average

3. It compares today's coins to that average

If you have MORE coins today than the average, that's good momentum - like your piggy bank is getting fuller faster! 📈

If you have FEWER coins today than the average, that's not-so-good momentum - like your piggy bank isn't growing as fast. 📉

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