What it measures

Net income (ib) plus depreciation (dp) divided by market equity. Exclude NASDAQ stocks.

Why it should work

Valuation: stocks that look cheap relative to fundamentals (earnings, book value, sales, cash flow) have historically out-earned expensive ones.

Full Sharpe
0.16
Ann. Return (LS)
4.4%
Ann. Volatility
28.2%
Max Drawdown
-76.3%

Growth of $1 — long-short

Technology only · cap-weighted · 331 months

Technology only
Where the edge comes from
Long leg Sharpe
0.55
top bucket, long-only
Long leg ann. return
13.4%
the buyable side
Bottom bucket Sharpe
0.23
the basket we short
Bottom bucket ann. return
9.0%
lower ⇒ wider spread

The bottom-bucket figures are that basket’s ownreturn (a long position in what the strategy shorts) — not the short side’s P&L. Long-short return = long leg − bottom bucket, so a falling bottom bucket widens the spread.

Performance by period
train
val
test
Sharpe by split
Train ’00–’120.50
Val ’13–’18-0.03
Test ’19–’26-0.07
Test FF5 α (ann.)
-8.6%
alpha vs Fama-French 5
Test FF5 α t-stat
-1.11
not significant
Monthly turnover
13%
of the long leg, per rebalance

Source study

Lakonishok, Shleifer, Vishny · 1994

Journal of Finance

7,650 citationsPublished +0.66%/mo · t 3.38
View on Google Scholar

Worked example

Live inputs for a real holding

AAPL · July 2026
InputValue
netinc122,575,000,000$
depamor12,610,000,000$
Market cap4,901,758$M
Formula
(netinc + depamor) / marketcap
Raw27578.8798Signed (×+1)27578.8798

signed_value is the internal ranking value; only its cross-sectional rank matters. $-vs-$M unit mix means ratio magnitudes carry a constant offset and are not comparable to textbook levels.

Replication

How closely this rebuild tracks the published research

Replicable
Open Source Asset Pricing signalCF
Correlation — full sample—
Correlation — test window—
Published monthly return0.66%
Published t-stat3.38

The OSAP comparison is only computed for the all-stocks variant — switch to “All stocks” above to see how the rebuild tracks the published series.

Style tilt

Size × value map of the long leg

81 classified
Value
Blend
Growth
Large
Mid
Small
76%21
13%4
·
7%20
2%8
<1%1
1%23
<1%3
·

Share of long-leg capital by market cap × book-to-market, using terciles of the 421-name universe at July 2026. Rows: Large ≥ $8.9B, Small < $1.9B. Columns: Value ≥ 0.63, Growth < 0.38 B/M. The dot marks the capital-weighted centroid of the book — 94% toward Large, 8% toward Growth. Hypothetical holdings — descriptive, not realized P&L.

Tilt over time
Size tilt94% → Large
SmallLarge
Value ↔ growth tilt8% → Growth
ValueGrowth

Capital-weighted centroid of the long leg, December 1998 → July 2026; the right-hand end is the same value as the box’s dot. 81 names now. Hypothetical holdings — descriptive, not P&L.

Since publication

Did the edge survive the paper coming out?

published 1994
Entirely since publication
All 331 months of our record post-date the 1994 paper.
Sharpe 0.164.4% p.a.January 1999 – July 2026

There is no “before” to compare against — the predictor was already public when our data begins, so every month shown is out-of-sample relative to the original study.

Split at January of the year after the factor was published. The post-publication stretch IS genuinely out-of-sample relative to the original study -- the predictor was public by then -- so it speaks to whether the effect survived being known. Nothing is fitted here, so this is performance SINCE PUBLICATION, not validation of a model. Note the 'pre' side is our data before publication (our panel starts ~1999), NOT the study's original in-sample period, which usually ran decades earlier; a decay figure compares before-vs-after within our sample and is not a comparison against the published result.

Derivatives risk (Rule 18f-4)

Relative VaR against the designated reference portfolio — as implemented here

long-short

This assessment describes the research long-short construction — long the top bucket, short the bottom.

Governing rule
Rule 18f-4(c)(2)(i) relative VaR (exception unavailable)

This fund does NOT qualify for the limited-derivatives-user exception (100% of net assets vs <= 10% of net assets), so the relative VaR test governs. Note the inversion: a dollar-neutral long-short book suppresses the market risk the VaR ratio measures and so tends to pass it, while being barred from the exception by construction — what disqualifies the strategy is the exposure threshold, not the risk limit.

Limited derivatives user exceptionby construction

Rule 18f-4(c)(4): a fund whose derivatives exposure (gross notional, including the value of assets sold short) is <= 10% of net assets is excepted from the VaR tests and the full derivatives risk management program.

Does not qualify
Required
<= 10% of net assets
Exposure
100% of net assets
Margin
−90pp

No confidence interval: this follows from portfolio construction, not from an estimate.

Rule 18f-4(c)(2)(i): fund VaR at 99% over 20 trading days must not exceed 200% of the designated reference portfolio's VaR on the same basis.

Not settled by the data
Measured
2.8 (95% CI 1.4-3.5)
x reference VaR
Limit
2.00x
<= 2.00x reference VaR
Fund VaR
27.0%
99% / 20d
Reference
9.6%
FF5 market (mkt)

The interval spans the limit. The point estimate is 2.80x but the 95% interval runs 1.44–3.48x, which includes 2.00x. This test does not settle which side of the line the fund is on.

historical method · 331 monthly observations · about 3.3 in the 99% tail · paired percentile bootstrap over months

Same test, three estimators
historical
2.80x
over
parametric
1.88x
within
cornish fisher
2.27x
over

The estimators disagree about the verdict, not just the value — the choice of method decides the answer here. Historical VaR gives ratio 2.80 (fail) but Gaussian VaR gives 1.88 (pass). The pass/fail conclusion is an artefact of estimator choice, not a property of the strategy.

Engineering approximation of SEC Rule 18f-4 for research display. Not a compliance opinion and not a determination that any fund is compliant. Hypothetical model portfolio, not a registered fund.

Consistency across eras

Is this record broadly durable, or one regime?

26 windows
Positive windows
54%
14 of 26 3-year windows made money
Worst window
-0.87
Sharpe, January 2010 – December 2012
January 1999July 2026
Median Sharpe
0.06
Dispersion
0.63
Best window
1.50

3-year rolling windows, stepping 1 year (26 windows). Dispersion is the spread of window Sharpes — higher means the record depends more on which era you look at.

Rules-based factors fit no parameters, so these windows are not out-of-sample tests and do not validate a fitted model. They show whether the factor's record is consistent across eras or driven by one regime.

Returns

Long-short is the research line; the long leg is what a long-only fund could hold

since January 1999
Trailing
PeriodLong-shortLong leg
1 yearcum.-36.5%38.6%
3 yearsp.a.-18.9%22.8%
5 yearsp.a.-3.3%14.4%
10 yearsp.a.-5.4%17.9%
Since inceptionp.a.0.3%10.9%
Calendar years
YearLong-shortLong leg
20267 mo-23.1%20.3%
2025-17.5%33.6%
2024-14.0%8.4%
2023-18.0%37.4%
202248.1%-26.2%
202153.6%34.7%
2020-41.4%13.4%
20197.2%30.4%
2018-21.0%-7.0%
20171.9%43.4%
201618.9%17.0%
2015-12.1%-10.6%
201413.4%24.1%
2013-10.3%35.9%
2012-12.8%-0.4%
20116.4%-7.3%
2010-30.6%5.1%
2009-4.9%53.3%
200835.6%-43.5%
2007-5.8%6.2%
2006-1.2%4.8%
2005-0.8%5.2%
20049.4%8.3%
2003-20.0%49.9%
2002101.7%-16.2%
2001111.3%35.9%
200029.8%-8.1%
1999-46.2%26.0%

Long-short is the research line (long the top bucket, short the bottom); the long leg alone is what a long-only fund could actually hold. Trailing figures run through July 2026: 1 year is a plain cumulative 12-month return (cum.), 3 years and longer are annualised (p.a.). Years marked with a month count are partial. These match the fact sheet’s tables by construction. Hypothetical backtest, gross of the placeholder expense ratio and trading costs — not investor results.

Methodology

Signal computed monthly from Sharadar point-in-time data, signed so higher = higher expected return. Restricted to the Technology sector, then sorted into quintiles within that sector. The virtual ETF is long the top bucket, short the bottom, cap-weighted, rebalanced monthly. FF5 alpha regresses the long-short on the Fama-French 5 factors.

Hypothetical research backtest. Not an offer, recommendation, or investment advice.