Fast Momentum + Gold Sleeve
Global core
70% fast momentum stocks, 30% gold ETF, refreshed monthly; momentum's cash spells sit in T-bills. Gold is there to dampen equity drawdowns, not to promise returns. Still a high-risk portfolio.
This strategy's universe (123) →
Worst stretch in the backtest: -39.1% — a simulated $1,000 would have dipped to ~$609 before recovering.
Concentration check: 2026 (to 2026-09-30) alone returned +85.7% — more than all the other years of this backtest together (+79.3%). The headline CAGR leans on that one period; see the chart data, year by year.
Backtest window: 2021-04-30 → 2026-09-30 · as of 2026-09-30 (updated quarterly)
This window does not include the COVID crash (Feb–Mar 2020) and the 2008 financial crisis.
Full methodology & limitations
Track records are simulated backtests, not live results. Methodology and current limitations: (1) Universe membership is real point-in-time index constituents - Nasdaq-100 (US) and WIG20 (PL), with dated add/drop history - so backtests see each index as it actually was, with no survivorship from later additions. Prices are adjusted close (total-return). When the backtest runs on the licensed, delisted-capable feed (EODHD), index members that later delisted or renamed are still priced and INCLUDED, closing the survivorship gap on the price side; when it runs on the keyless fallback feed, some delisted names are unpriced and dropped, which can flatter drawdowns. Smaller residuals remain: index changes after the last sourced revision are not yet reflected (Nasdaq-100 membership as pulled on 2026-06-30, WIG20 as of its September 2025 revision), and a few long-delisted tickers may still be unresolved. A name with no real quote for 14 days is treated as untradable - never picked and never held on a frozen price - and a renamed listing is held under its new code with its full history. (2) Costs are charged per market on each rebalance's turnover - 5 bps for US names, 10 bps for EU, 20 bps for Warsaw (GPW) - the conservative end of typical half-spread-plus-fees for liquid names; market impact and FX conversion are not modelled (negligible at retail size, understated for large money). (3) Prices are total-return (dividends reinvested) where the data feed supports it. (4) Sharpe and Sortino use a flat 3%/yr cash (risk-free) rate, approximately the average US T-bill yield over the backtest window; actual cash rates varied 0-5% within it and Polish rates were mostly higher, so ratios are approximate. (5) Cross-market calendar gaps are bridged by carrying the last known price forward, which can modestly understate day-to-day volatility. (6) Rebalances are simulated at the same closing price the signal is computed from (close-to-close execution); a live follower trades at the next session's prices, so simulated results may differ from what next-bar execution would have produced. Past simulated performance does not predict future results.
Hover any metric above — I'll explain what it means.
How you'd carry it out in your broker
Every model portfolio update publishes as a plain list of tickers and weights — the exact same file for every subscriber. Here's the general shape of loading that into four popular brokers; the actual tickers and weights only appear once you unlock this strategy.
This strategy has averaged 5.0 changes in the model portfolio per month, over its last publications.
XTB, Trading 212, IBKR, Revolut
XTB
- Each published ticker is searchable in the XTB app/web platform.
- XTB has no basket/pie import — each ticker's published weight is its share of the model portfolio; whether and how much to trade is your own decision.
Trading 212
- Portfolio → Pies → Create Pie.
- Each published ticker goes in with its published weight % — the Pie then tracks that allocation for you.
Interactive Brokers (IBKR)
- Once unlocked, the model portfolio downloads as a CSV.
- Classic TWS: File → Import Watchlist reads that file — each ticker's published weight is its share of the model portfolio.
Revolut
- Each published ticker is searchable in the Invest tab.
- Revolut has no basket import — each ticker's published weight is its share of the model portfolio; whether and how much to trade is your own decision.
General information about loading a published, identical-for-everyone list into a broker — not a personal recommendation. Whether and how much to trade is your own decision, in your own account; we never trade on your behalf.
Track record
Chart data (year by year)
| Year | Simulated return |
|---|---|
| 2021 (from Apr) | -1.8% |
| 2022 | -20.5% |
| 2023 | +26.2% |
| 2024 | +0.8% |
| 2025 | +80.6% |
| 2026 | +85.7% (to 2026-09-30) |
Dashed line = Equal-weight universe (same window and costs): CAGR 11.2%, max drawdown -31.9%.
Simulated backtest — methodology & limitations above, next to the stats.
This month's model portfolio
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How it works — in plain words
Fast momentum on stocks, plus a permanent gold sleeve. The equity half hunts winners; the gold slice is there for the days when everything equity-shaped falls at once and 'diversification' between stocks stops working.
It runs fast momentum on stocks AND always keeps a slice of gold. Most months the gold just sits there — a small drag while stocks climb. Then a 2008-style panic hits: stocks that normally move independently ALL crash together, and the gold, which marches to a different drum, holds or even rises and cushions the fall. You're paying a small 'insurance premium' in calm times for a shock absorber in the moments when diversification between stocks evaporates.
In a real panic, stocks that normally move independently suddenly all move DOWN together — intra-equity diversification evaporates exactly when you need it. Assets from a different family (gold, cash, long bonds) can hold or rise in those moments. The lesson: check what your 'diversifier' does on the worst days, not the average ones.
Gold pays no dividend and has no earnings — its 'yield' is behavioural: people run to it when they trust nothing else. That's precisely what makes it useful in a crash sleeve and frustrating in a boom.
Live since 2026-07-13 through 2026-11-06: -16.8% (3 mo) — the result of the published portfolios, entering at the next session's close. This is not a backtest.
Update history
| As of | What changed |
|---|---|
| 2026-11-01 | Model update: rotated the basket (2 added, 2 removed) |
| 2026-10-01 | Model update: rotated the basket (3 added, 3 removed) |
| 2026-09-03 | Model update: rotated the basket (3 added, 3 removed) |
| 2026-08-03 | Model update: rotated the basket (2 added, 2 removed) |
| 2026-07-21 | Model update: rotated the basket (2 added, 2 removed) |
Grounded in published research
The peer-reviewed findings this strategy is built on:
- Jegadeesh, N. & Titman, S. (1993). Journal of Finance, 48(1).
- Baur, D. & Lucey, B. (2010). Is Gold a Hedge or a Safe Haven? An Analysis of Stocks, Bonds and Gold. Financial Review, 45(2).
- Erb, C. & Harvey, C. (2013). The Golden Dilemma. Financial Analysts Journal, 69(4). (the caveat: gold's real return is regime-dependent)
A documented, peer-reviewed effect — cited so you can read the source yourself, not take our word for it. Implementation and results are ours (see methodology); the underlying finding is the literature's.
This strategy's rules and every model-portfolio update are written and run by HedgeYourOwn's founder.