Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
Best Of BRK.A | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Post of the Week! ¤
Search BRK.A
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Best Of BRK.A | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Post of the Week! ¤
Search BRK.A


Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (6) |
Post New
Author: mdtbear   😊 😞
Number: of 4356 
Subject: Hi Friends
Date: 08/19/2025 11:01 PM
Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 6
I've followed the MI board (and posted VL rankings/perf for a bit) back in the day.

Apart from checking the Arezi ratio here and there I haven't paid much attention. Glad to see the same names expounding their wisdom week in and week out.

I've lost track of various members' yearly update posts. Do those happen still? I used to get a lot of inspiration from those.

I never made any big money with MI, but through brute force I now have a bit.

I just turned 50. Give me some wisdom.
Print the post


Author: mungofitch 🐝🐝🐝 SILVER
SHREWD
  😊 😞

Number: of 4356 
Subject: Re: Hi Friends
Date: 08/21/2025 12:38 PM
Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 13
Give me some wisdom.

Ha! You'll tend to get a different answer from different people. But going way out on a limb, I think that most here would say that it has been extraordinarily difficult to use MI to beat an index for quite a number of years now.

Partly because the index has done so well, making all timing and individual stock selection seem like a waste of time, but many have concluded that the simple factors that used to work don't seem to work any more. They never worked perfectly, but some of them seemed to work for a very long time.

A classic example is YLDEARNYEAR. It was published in 2003. It beat the S&P 500 by 10%/year (monthly top 10) in the next ten year 2004-2013, which seemed at the time to be definitive proof that some of the MI screens were far more than just overmining the data. But then it trailed the index for the next six years by 12%/year (admittedly while ALL dividend stocks were lagging a lot on average), then fell off a cliff, hit by the 2020 pandemic which created the mother of all whipsaws for anything momentum based--lagging the index by 42% that year. It then went on to beat the S&P by 15%/year 2021-2024.
So...is it a good screen or not?

I have had modest success with very diversified screens with very modest goals. e.g. LargeCapCash, a 40 stock screen aiming to beat the market by maybe 2-3%/year with very low risk. It beat the S&P by 4.7%/year in the first 4.75 years after publication, using "top 40 HTD 45", trading each two months, with friction. The variant that requires a dividend and a valid Timeliness rank. 4.4% if you didn't require a valid Timeliness.

Jim
Print the post


Author: wan123   😊 😞
Number: of 4356 
Subject: Re: Hi Friends
Date: 08/22/2025 9:48 AM
Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 1
What are the rules for the LargeCapCash screen?
Thanks in advance.
Print the post


Author: mdtbear   😊 😞
Number: of 4356 
Subject: Re: Hi Friends
Date: 08/23/2025 11:09 PM
Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 1
Thank you for that.

YLDEARNYEAR brings back good memories. (Probably terrible ones for others)

I'll cautiously look into your LargeCapCash strat.
Print the post


Author: rayvt   😊 😞
Number: of 16624 
Subject: Re: Hi Friends
Date: 08/24/2025 9:21 AM
Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 16
What are the rules for the LargeCapCash screen?
(I guess this from around March 2020)

https://boards.fool.com/jim-what-is-this-the-quotl...

http://www.datahelper.com/mi/search.phtml?nofool=y...

This screen is intended as a SPY replacement, just with somewhat better long run returns.
So, by design, it leans very strongly to large caps.
It just gives an edge by holding fewer losers: it sticks to those with high ROE and strong balance sheets. That's about it.

There are two versions, one with dividends and one without.
Hence the "Div" on the end of the name of the other one, "LargeCapCash".

Summary:
Original version used the Value Line set of stocks as its starting point. Others created an equivalent using the Stock Investor Pro set of stocks.

The steps:
(1) Keep only those stocks that have a Timeliness ranking. (good or bad, just not missing)
This isn't strictly necessary, but it rules out a few firms that have very little history or just
went through transformative M&A, or in the process of being bought out or going bust.

(2) Find those stocks with a dividend.
This step is entirely optional, depending on your preference for stocks with or without dividends.
The dividend version leans to *slightly* smaller large-caps, but the average annual return in backtest is actually a bit higher.
As you wish.

(3) Of those still in the running, keep the 30% of them that have the highest reported ROE.
Taking 32% might be better if you're obsessive, makes little difference.
At this point you have an average of 475 candidates remaining.

(4) For those remaining, calculate their cash minus long term debt.
Not cash as a percentage of market cap, just absolute size of cash pile beyond debt.
Buy equal dollar amounts of the 40 with the most cash.
Hold for a month (or two or three), and repeat.

Recommended version:
Buy equal dollar amounts of the 40 "best" as above.
Hold for two months.
Calculate the rankings again.
For each stock you own no longer ranked in the top 45, replace with the highest ranked one you don't already own.
Repeat.
In the jargon, that's "top 40 hold-till-drop 45", or 40 HTD 45.
40 HTD 60 is also very nice, less trading.

Hear are year by year results for the 40 HTD 60 backtest, the version without dividends.
Includes reinvested dividends, and allows 0.4% per round trip for trading costs.
Period     Screen    S&P      Diff
1997 32.2 27.9 4.3
1998 42.8 34.5 8.3
1999 16.3 18.4 -2.1
2000 23.9 -10.8 34.7
2001 -6.3 -8.0 1.7
2002 -16.5 -18.9 2.4
2003 23.0 23.0 0.0
2004 15.3 8.9 6.3
2005 10.4 7.5 2.9
2006 16.7 13.8 2.9
2007 6.1 1.9 4.3
2008 -27.8 -32.9 5.1
2009 39.5 25.5 14.0
2010 20.5 14.2 6.3
2011 4.2 2.5 1.7
2012 14.7 17.1 -2.5
2013 28.7 27.6 1.0
2014 18.7 12.9 5.8
2015 1.5 1.9 -0.4
2016 18.5 14.4 4.1
2017 31.5 21.8 9.7
2018 -2.7 -3.5 0.9
2019 34.5 29.9 4.6
2020 31.0 16.9 14.1
Jan-Mar 13.7 9.8 3.8 (not annualized)

Overall 14.8 9.3 5.5
So, from the backtest anyway, when it underperforms it usually isn't by much.
The long run advantage is heavily flattered by 2000. Best to ignore that.
In reality I wouldn't expect an advantage of more than 3 points as a wild guess.

It was proposed about a year ago.
First 11 months since then, screen +67.9%, S&P +45.7%.
Doesn't prove anything, but off to a nice start. A lack of prompt failure, anyway.

Since by design it is a lot like the S&P, it works not so badly with a bit of hedging.
Own this long, then go short the S&P 500 with futures a little bit.
Same long run returns or a little better, but with smaller net stock exposure and a steadier rate of return.

Here's the post that introduced it, a year ago this week.

https://boards.fool.com/a-spy-alternative-screen-3...

I have a couple of extra tweaks I like, but that's my nature.
For example, insert a step (2.5) that has you keep considering only the 50% of stocks closest to their 52 week highs.
Sort of like using crowdsourcing to cull some losers and some that the market *thinks* are losers for now.
Rate of return not that different (backtest is 1.6%/year better), but it's a much smoother ride.

Jim

------------------------------------------
https://boards.fool.com/please-let-us-know-if-you-...
10/30/2021

GOOG MSFT FB AMZN BABA SONY TSM CSCO HUM ACN
VRTX COST NVDA TROW ATVI ZM BBY PYPL NKE INFY
MOH EQH ERIC ANET TTWO SGEN AB AMP SAGE MNST
CTSH NTAP AMD GRMN FTNT INTU LOGI CHKP VEEV REGN
Print the post


Author: elann 🐝 GOLD
SHREWD
  😊 😞

Number: of 16624 
Subject: Re: Hi Friends
Date: 08/25/2025 3:42 AM
Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 5
What are the rules for the LargeCapCash screen?

https://boards.fool.com/please-let-us-know-if-you-...
10/30/2021

GOOG MSFT FB AMZN BABA SONY TSM CSCO HUM ACN
VRTX COST NVDA TROW ATVI ZM BBY PYPL NKE INFY
MOH EQH ERIC ANET TTWO SGEN AB AMP SAGE MNST
CTSH NTAP AMD GRMN FTNT INTU LOGI CHKP VEEV REGN


I've been using a version of that screen that selects only US domiciled companies. So on that particular date it excluded BABA SONY TSM near the top of the list, and possibly others further down.

Elan
Print the post


Post New
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (6) |


Announcements
Berkshire Hathaway FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Best Of BRK.A | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds