What it measures

Price (prc/cfacshr) divided by the maximum price over the previous 12 months.

Why it should work

Momentum: recent winners have historically kept outperforming recent losers over the following months.

Full Sharpe
0.25
Ann. Return (LS)
7.1%
Ann. Volatility
27.7%
Max Drawdown
-77.9%

Growth of $1 — long-short

Technology only · cap-weighted · 331 months

Technology only
Where the edge comes from
Long leg Sharpe
0.61
top bucket, long-only
Long leg ann. return
16.7%
the buyable side
Bottom bucket Sharpe
0.27
the basket we short
Bottom bucket ann. return
9.7%
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–’120.01
Val ’13–’180.08
Test ’19–’260.61
Test FF5 α (ann.)
20.2%
alpha vs Fama-French 5
Test FF5 α t-stat
1.82
not significant
Monthly turnover
44%
of the long leg, per rebalance

Source study

George and Hwang · 2004

Journal of Finance

1,177 citationsPublished +0.45%/mo · t 2.00
View on Google Scholar

Worked example

Live inputs for a real holding

AAPL · July 2026
InputValue
Adj. close333.74
Adj. close max12333.74
Formula
closeadj / trailing-12m-high
Raw1.0000Signed (×+1)1.0000

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 signalHigh52
Correlation — full sample—
Correlation — test window—
Published monthly return0.45%
Published t-stat2.00

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

83 classified
Value
Blend
Growth
Large
Mid
Small
1%3
8%9
90%13
<1%12
<1%12
<1%9
<1%9
<1%2
<1%5

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 — 99% toward Large, 95% toward Growth. +1% unclassified (9 missing size/value). Hypothetical holdings — descriptive, not realized P&L.

Tilt over time
Size tilt99% → Large
SmallLarge
Value ↔ growth tilt95% → 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. 83 names now. Hypothetical holdings — descriptive, not P&L.

Since publication

Did the edge survive the paper coming out?

published 2004
Before publication (pre-2004)
0.16
Sharpe · 6.3% p.a.
January 1999 – December 2004 · 72 mo
Since publication
0.31
Sharpe · 7.3% p.a.
January 2005 – July 2026 · 259 mo
Change in Sharpe+0.15Sharpe strengthened since publication16% stronger in annual return

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
2.1 (95% CI 1.3-3.1)
x reference VaR
Limit
2.00x
<= 2.00x reference VaR
Fund VaR
20.7%
99% / 20d
Reference
9.6%
FF5 market (mkt)

The interval spans the limit. The point estimate is 2.15x but the 95% interval runs 1.28–3.06x, 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
2.15x
over
parametric
1.82x
within
cornish fisher
1.98x
within

The estimators disagree about the verdict, not just the value — the choice of method decides the answer here. Historical VaR gives ratio 2.15 (fail) but Gaussian VaR gives 1.82 (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
58%
15 of 26 3-year windows made money
Worst window
-1.22
Sharpe, January 2003 – December 2005
January 1999July 2026
Median Sharpe
0.30
Dispersion
0.61
Best window
1.03

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.89.3%64.8%
3 yearsp.a.39.3%49.0%
5 yearsp.a.26.6%27.5%
10 yearsp.a.9.4%28.6%
Since inceptionp.a.3.2%13.9%
Calendar years
YearLong-shortLong leg
20267 mo67.3%61.3%
20250.7%16.0%
202471.3%70.9%
2023-17.9%38.3%
20229.5%-31.9%
202128.5%31.3%
2020-8.5%52.3%
2019-5.0%43.0%
20183.6%-3.3%
2017-13.3%33.0%
2016-14.7%14.1%
201515.4%3.3%
201424.3%25.6%
2013-10.0%36.9%
201234.3%26.5%
201126.8%7.0%
2010-18.7%13.1%
2009-49.1%14.7%
200818.2%-40.5%
200718.8%14.9%
200614.6%20.1%
2005-19.3%-6.3%
20043.2%8.6%
2003-40.3%34.9%
2002-8.7%-37.0%
20019.9%-13.3%
20008.8%-29.4%
199936.7%113.7%

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.