Dow Jones (DIA), 2003–2018: through the Global Financial Crisis.
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acuTREND ~ LODD (Long-Only, Drawdown Discipline)CPR: Capture. Protect. Repeat.
Capture the Major Trends. Control the Downside.
A long-only, rules-based framework for multi-year allocation in core equities and major ETFs, built on 40 years of market experience.
Our long-only approach captures the major trends, protects capital when they break, and repeats the process trend after trend, with drawdowns held to a disciplined fraction of buy and hold. That’s CPR.
A Long-Only Methodology for the Full Market Cycle
Institutional portfolios demand more than static entry and exit signals. acuTRADE is a buy-side-only framework, engineered through decades of market cycles for large-AUM ETFs and equities from $5 billion in market capitalization to the largest companies in the world. It never sells short. Its edge lies in owning the major uptrends and in controlling what happens when they end.
Every position is managed as a lifecycle, not a single call.
- Buy: entry as a new uptrend is confirmed.
- AT/B (Add To / Buy): signals as the trend renews, to add to a position or begin a new one.
- SP 1 and SP 2 (Scale Partial): partial profits taken as the advance matures, 20% of the position at each, while the core 60% stays invested in the trend.
- Exit: a disciplined close when the trend ends.
When a decline takes hold, acuTRADE exits, and the capital goes back to work. Declines are rarely universal. While one market weakens, others are entering new uptrends. Capital released by an Exit is redeployed into positions carrying active acuTRADE Buy signals or held in short-term Treasuries until the next opportunity appears. In 2022, as the S&P 500 fell 25%, acuTRADE identified positions in Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Vertex Pharmaceuticals as their uptrends took hold against the broader market.
The result is participation with control. On the Dow Jones ETF (DIA), acuTRADE stood aside for nine months during the global financial crisis and for one month during the COVID crash, then bought back in. From 2003 through 2017, buy and hold’s worst drop was 54.4%, while acuTRADE’s deepest drop below a Buy price was 17.6%. From 2018 through 2025, the gap was 38.5% against 4%.
Applied Materials (AMAT)
How to read the scorecard
The label at the right of each chart is a scorecard. It compares the stock traded with acuTRADE against simply buying and holding it.
Top block: the current trade. “OPEN TRADE” shows the Buy price and date, the gain since the Buy, how much is still held, and the highest price since the Buy. “Out” means acuTRADE is not in the stock today. The text turns red when the open trade is below its Buy price.
Three blocks below: the last 1, 3 and 10 calendar years. Each block shows:
- Return: with acuTRADE versus buy and hold.
- Max DD (maximum drawdown): for acuTRADE, the deepest drop below a Buy price. For buy and hold, the deepest drop from a high to a low. Each is dated.
- Closed trades and how many are still open.
- AT/B signals: later entry points, shown for traders who missed the Buy. They are not counted in the results.
- In the market: the share of time acuTRADE held the stock. The rest is time spent standing aside.
- Best trade and Weakest trade: each whole trade’s result, partial profits included, with its Buy and Exit months.
The acuTRADE Index & ETF Tracker
This table shows where acuTRADE stands today on 20 widely held index and sector ETFs, 13 standard funds and 7 2X funds. Each row is the current acuTRADE trade in that fund: the date and price of the Buy, whether partial profits were taken at SP 1 and SP 2, how many AT/B (Add To / Buy) signals have appeared since, and the gain or loss from the Buy.
“Holding” means acuTRADE is in the fund today, measured to the current price. “Out” means the trade has closed, measured to the Exit price. Out rows are shaded grey.
The tracker is updated regularly and dated at the top. Gains on open trades are not locked in; they change with the market until the Exit.
Reading the columns
- Buy Date / Buy Price: when acuTRADE opened the current trade.
- SP 1 / SP 2: “Yes” means 20% of the position was sold for profit at that stage.
- AT/Bs: how many add-to points have appeared since the Buy. They are shown for information and are not counted in the results.
- Gain / Loss from Buy: the price change from the Buy to today, or to the Exit if the trade is closed.
As of
19 of 20 funds still holding; the one exit (XLU) closed at +29.5%.
Scroll the table horizontally to see all columns.
| Symbol | Fund | Status | Buy Date | Buy Price | SP 1 | SP 2 | AT/Bs | Exit Date | Current or Exit Price | Gain / Loss from Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index & Sector ETFs | ||||||||||
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 | Holding | 04/10/25 | 532.17 | — | — | — | — | 764.62 | +43.7% |
| QQQ | Invesco QQQ (Nasdaq-100) | Holding | 02/01/23 | 302.84 | Yes | Yes | — | — | 707.80 | +133.7% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 | Holding | 04/25/25 | 192.72 | — | — | 1 | — | 276.06 | +43.2% |
| DIA | SPDR Dow Jones | Holding | 04/09/20 | 237.84 | Yes | — | 8 | — | 526.94 | +121.6% |
| SMH | VanEck Semiconductor | Holding | 01/17/23 | 113.25 | Yes | Yes | 9 | — | 526.39 | +364.8% |
| XLK | Technology Select Sector | Holding | 01/09/19 | 31.45 | Yes | Yes | 14 | — | 182.35 | +479.8% |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector | Holding | 11/10/22 | 34.90 | Yes | Yes | 5 | — | 56.56 | +62.1% |
| XLE | Energy Select Sector | Holding | 11/24/20 | 19.82 | Yes | Yes | 8 | — | 67.25 | +239.3% |
| XLI | Industrial Select Sector | Holding | 04/29/20 | 65.57 | Yes | Yes | 10 | — | 165.87 | +153.0% |
| XLV | Health Care Select Sector | Holding | 03/27/20 | 84.34 | Yes | — | 7 | — | 180.27 | +113.7% |
| XLU | Utilities Select Sector | Out | 11/02/23 | 30.25 | Yes | — | 2 | 09/29/26 | 39.16 | +29.5% |
| XLP | Consumer Staples Select Sector | Holding | 11/06/23 | 68.77 | — | — | 1 | — | 89.40 | +30.0% |
| EEM | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets | Holding | 01/09/23 | 40.56 | Yes | Yes | 7 | — | 61.58 | +51.8% |
| 2X Index & Sector ETFs | ||||||||||
| SSO | ProShares Ultra S&P 500 | Holding | 04/24/25 | 37.25 | — | — | 4 | — | 69.02 | +85.3% |
| QLD | ProShares Ultra QQQ | Holding | 03/22/23 | 23.40 | Yes | Yes | 7 | — | 86.50 | +269.7% |
| UWM | ProShares Ultra Russell 2000 | Holding | 07/01/25 | 39.13 | — | — | — | — | 55.55 | +42.0% |
| DDM | ProShares Ultra Dow 30 | Holding | 04/15/25 | 42.11 | — | — | — | — | 65.45 | +55.4% |
| USD | ProShares Ultra Semiconductors | Holding | 02/01/23 | 5.86 | Yes | Yes | 6 | — | 73.70 | +1,157.7% |
| ROM | ProShares Ultra Technology | Holding | 04/25/25 | 50.67 | Yes | Yes | 5 | — | 137.40 | +171.2% |
| UYG | ProShares Ultra Financials | Holding | 06/17/26 | 87.73 | — | — | 1 | — | 93.16 | +6.2% |
Out rows (grey) show the result at the Exit. 2X ETFs are leveraged and reset daily; they move about twice as much as their index, both ways. Long-only; signals are acted on at the next day’s open.
A Decade of Real Markets: DJI 2002–2013
From June 2002 to May 2013, acuTRADE navigated three of the sharpest market drawdowns of the last quarter century: the 2002 bear market bottom, the 2008 global financial crisis, and the August 2011 U.S. debt ceiling selloff. For institutional allocators and family offices, downside protection is not about avoiding market exposure – it is about systematic risk governance through full market cycles.
Seven Years of Real Markets: QQQ (2019–2026)
Total Scope: Five sequential campaigns on QQQ (three long, two short) from February 2019 through June 2026.
Methodology: Every price, date, and percentage is derived directly from real charts, capturing the full record, including gains and losses.
Intel Corporation (INTC): A Complete Campaign
Every marker, every date, every price, documented in appendix below. Most trading systems present single, isolated calls in hindsight. acuTRADE is different. Below is an authentic, unedited look at how the acuTRADE algorithmic engine structured and managed capital across five sequential Intel Corporation (INTC) campaigns-navigating entries, executing disciplined scale-outs, flipping short, and capturing macro swings. Every date, price level, and return metric is drawn directly from chart source data.
How 32 Major Index & Sector ETFs Signal Strength and Weakness Across Equities
See where market leadership is emerging and where weakness is developing across U.S., international developed, and emerging markets.
Using the same systematic framework demonstrated in the Dow, Intel, and QQQ analyses, we evaluate 32 major indexes and sector ETFs through both historical campaign performance and current market structure. The result is a top-down view of market strength, sector rotation, and where conditions are changing across equities.
The acuTRADE Index & ETF Tracker
See the current acuTRADE trade in 20 widely held index and sector ETFs: 13 standard funds and 7 2X funds.
Recognition from Industry Leaders
Perspectives from respected leaders in investment management, technical analysis, financial research, and academia.
Testimonials
TRENDadvisor’s fully automated position management and systematic risk software is designed to deliver disciplined, multi-year trend exposure for institutional portfolios.