Random Portfolios as a Benchmark: A Smarter Yardstick for Performance
Investors often compare performance to market indexes like the S&P 500, but traditional benchmarks have built-in biases. The S&P 500, for example, is heavily skewed toward large-cap stocks and “is not a good benchmark for measuring alpha” – it reflects a size-factor bias rather than pure manager skill. All major indexes systematically tilt toward certain factors (size, sector, value/growth, etc.), meaning they’re not truly passive… 
Sharp market selloffs are stressful… and useful. They create a live-fire laboratory where leadership quality is revealed in real time. In the Stock Trends framework, the most informative sequence is a stock that registers a New Weak Bullish () during the shock — a pullback statement in a bullish primary trend — and then, within a week, flips back to a Return to Strong Bullish (). That… 
The Stock Trends Gauge of Investor Sentiment has long served as a vital compass for interpreting the emotional currents that drive markets. By measuring the distribution of Bullish and Bearish Stock Trends indicators across all New York Stock Exchange issues, this gauge transforms the abstract notion of “market mood” into a quantifiable, observable pattern of investor behavior. Over the past two decades, it has proven… 
There are weeks when the language of the market becomes unmistakable, even before it is broadly understood. The first week of October 2025 feels like such a moment. In the latest Stock Trends Picks of the Week, we observe not the frenzy of a mature bull market but something quieter, more deliberate — a low hum of recovery taking shape across the intricate lattice of…