The Portfolio Duel
Twenty model portfolios, twenty rule books, one start date. Each portfolio begins with $100,000 and trades by its own rules, written down in advance — no gut feeling, no second-guessing. All of them are measured against the same two yardsticks: the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500.
No trading day recorded yet.
The idea
Investment strategies are claimed often and measured rarely. Here it is the other way round: twenty rule books compete under identical conditions. Each gets $100,000 and sticks stubbornly to its own rules, written down in advance — what to buy, when to sell, how often to rebalance. Nobody gets to adjust them along the way, and no decision is made on gut feeling.
The rule books come from three directions: eleven follow our own stock screeners, five are proposals from this newsroom, and three are house ideas — one holding only stocks we rate green, one betting against shaky companies, and the operator’s real portfolio. The twentieth is the yardstick: it buys the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 on day one and never moves again. A rule book that cannot beat those two has not earned the effort.
What happens on Monday
On July 27, 2026 every portfolio buys for the first time. Each asks its source which stocks qualify under its rules and buys them at the closing price of that trading day — less order costs of 0.1 percent, at least $1. Whatever is left stays in cash.
From Tuesday on this runs automatically every trading day: fetch the closing prices, then work through every portfolio. Selling is checked daily; buying happens only at each portfolio’s own cadence — some monthly, some once a year, one never again.
What you will see here
A leaderboard of every portfolio together with both yardsticks — losers included, nothing is hidden. Plus a page per portfolio with its performance curve, holdings, cash ratio and the complete trade history: every single move with the reason it happened. Anyone wondering why a portfolio dropped a stock will not have to guess.
| Portfolio | Performance | Lead over QQQ | Largest drawdown | Win rate | Time in the market | Portfolio value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Stocks Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Earnings Surprise Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Graham Net-Net Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Turnaround Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Magic Formula Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Power Play Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Terry Smith Quality Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Piotroski F-Score Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| QARP Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Fundamental Rank Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Triple-Digit Growth Driven by our screeners | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Green Light House rule books | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Bankruptcy Candidates (short) House rule books | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Handpicked House rule books | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Storm-Proof Suggested by the assistant | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Fair Weather Suggested by the assistant | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Insider Trail Suggested by the assistant | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Fund Shadow Suggested by the assistant | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Hot Stocks Suggested by the assistant | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| The Lazy One Yardstick | — | — | — | — | — | $100,000 |
| Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) Yardstick | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| S&P 500 (SPY) Yardstick | — | — | — | — | — | — |