01 / A free research letter for self-directed investors
We test investment and trading strategies on decades of market history, and share every result.
We’re obsessive about finding strategies with a real edge. The ones that pass our tests go into our growing Strategy Vault. The ones that don’t are scrapped, or benched for more work. Our readers get to know what’s worth trading and what isn’t.
02 / What we do
No idea is too strange to test.
Hidden patterns. Mispriced assets. Weather. Moon phases. Trendline breaks, breakouts and mean-reversion combinations. No idea is too weird, and nothing is off the table.
When we find a real signal hiding in the noise, and it holds up in testing, we turn it into a rules-based strategy. Members get an alert whenever it’s time to trade, so they can act with conviction. Because when it comes to profitable trading, the trick is in the knowing.
Step 01
Test anything.
No idea is off the table. Each one is turned into a fixed set of rules and tested on past prices, after trading costs, bad years included.
Step 02
Share every result.
Every test goes out in The Proving Ground, our free letter, pass or fail. You learn what’s worth trading and what isn’t.
Step 03
Lock in the winners.
Strategies with a real edge go into the Strategy Vault. Members get full access, choose which strategies to follow, and get an alert when a new trade comes up.
Every test ends in a published verdict
PASSEDBENCHEDSCRAPPED
03 / The Strategy Vault
Our Strategy Vault is always growing
Membership includes every strategy in the Vault, and every strategy we add later, for as long as you’re a member. You choose which ones send you alerts.
Portfolio system
PASSED
Momentum Rotational Portfolio
25.5%
a year since 1993 (SPY: 10.9%)
22/32
full years it beat SPY
Growth of $100 since 1993, log scale
A fully allocated portfolio system that holds the 5 strongest stocks in the S&P 500. It’s checked the same day every month, and a stock is only swapped when it falls out of the top five. Think of it as your own personal index fund on steroids.
A swing trading strategy averaging about 4 trades a month. Certain stocks rise during a specific window of time each year; this system buys at the start of those windows and sells at the end.
A special opportunity strategy. It buys closed-end funds when their shares sell far below what the fund itself is worth, and sells when that gap is back to normal. New trades can be more than a year apart, but historically they have rarely lost. You choose which trades to take.
Each strategy’s full record is inside the Vault, losing trades included. Records are hypothetical: rebuilt by applying each strategy’s rules to past prices, after trading costs.
04 / The Proving Ground · Free
Every strategy we test, shared in full.
Each issue covers what’s on the test bench: the strategy or idea we tested, how we tested it, and what the numbers showed, pass or fail.
It’s written in plain English, with the full numbers shown. When a strategy passes, it goes into the Strategy Vault, where members get its trade alerts.
05 / Membership
Join the Strategy Vault
Each time a strategy passes our tests, it goes into the Vault, ready to trade. Members get every strategy in the Vault, now and in the future.
We’re building a library of swing and day trading strategies for stocks, futures, options and forex, special opportunity strategies across asset classes, and fully allocated portfolio systems that aim to beat their benchmark.
Choose the strategies you want alerts for and trade them as the alerts arrive, or follow along first and decide later.
Trade alerts by emailAn alert whenever a strategy you follow has a trade due. You choose which strategies alert you.
Every strategy in the VaultEach one’s rules, its full record and its current trades.
Every strategy we add laterIncluded at no extra cost for as long as you’re a member.
Strategies you won’t find anywhere elseEach one is built in-house and stress-tested against years of market history, crashes included. Only the survivors make it into the Vault.
Go fast, go big or go bargain huntingFast-moving swing trades, long-haul portfolio systems, rare bargain opportunities and more, with new strategies added as they pass our tests. Follow the ones that fit how you trade, or run them all.
Never bet everything on one ideaEvery strategy in the Vault works from a different pattern, so they move to different rhythms. Spread across several, and you’re never riding on a single idea or a single kind of market.
You call the shotsYou pick the strategies, you pick the trades and you set the size. Start small or put serious money to work. Nobody touches your account but you.
06 / About
15+ years in financial publishing
The Proving Ground is written by Liam Livingston, who has spent more than 15 years in financial publishing and is an obsessive trader. It’s his personal strategy playground, shared directly with readers.
Liam is always hunting for new strategies with a real edge. He started The Proving Ground to share the ideas he’s exploring and what the tests showed, pass or fail. The strategies that hold up go into the Vault, so anyone who wants to can follow along and take part in the forward testing. He also wants to build a community where members share new ideas to test.
Nothing here is personal financial advice. We’re a publisher, not a broker or an investment adviser. We don’t manage money, and members place their own trades with their own broker. If you trade a strategy from the Vault, you’re a guinea pig, just like Liam. Never trade money you can’t afford to lose.