Subject: Re: OT: so you want an index
Jim, any idea of drawdowns with this system?

Well, it's a long/long system, not long/cash. It only switches between "long the S&P cap weight" and "long the S&P equal weight", so the drawdowns will be extremely comparable to those.
S&P 500 nominal total return worst drawdown since 1960 = -54.85%
S&P 500 equal weight nominal total return worst drawdown since 1960 = -59.84%
Switch scheme -57.29%

As with any "long equities all the time", you'll lose half your money once in a while, on a mark-to-market basis. That's life.

Or worse.
The memento mori:
S&P 500 nominal total return worst drawdown since 1930 = -81.84%
S&P 500 equal weight nominal total return worst drawdown since 1930 = -82.87%

If you had a long/cash timing system you trusted, you could use this one to pick which thing to be long. Depending on how frequent your long/cash signals are, you might not even have to bother switching which ting you're long, just hold what you bought till the next bear signal, and it still might give you a few basis points of advantage over "only SPY when long" over the long run.

Jim