Period 25 Review: Tankers Rebound for Magic Formula as Four Screens Come Up Empty

Period 25 covers September 26 to October 3, 2026 — a period in which the S&P 500 slipped −0.27% while the NASDAQ added +0.45%, a return to the split verdict of Period 23 after Period 24's broad advance. Only two of the journal's seven screens closed positive: Magic Formula at +2.43% and CANSLIM Rocket at +0.58%. Lynch finished just below flat at −0.09%. The remaining four — Burry Value Screen, Schloss Dividend, Piotroski F-Score, and Quality Growth — each posted exactly −0.10%, a figure that reflects the sell fee alone rather than their holdings' price moves, for reasons covered below. The spread between best and worst screen narrowed to 2.53 percentage points from Period 24's 6.95.

The period's defining event was not a price move but an empty snapshot. At the October 3 screen run, four of the seven tracked screens returned no qualifying names at all. The journal's methodology treats every stock that drops off a screen as exited at its last snapshot price, with a 0.1% sell fee as the only cost — so for those four screens, every position was closed at September 26 prices, and none of this period's actual price movement in their holdings is reflected in their results. Among the three screens that did return names, Period 24's rotation ran in reverse: the tanker names that sank Magic Formula a week earlier rebounded hard, while CANSLIM Rocket's chip rally cooled.

Period 25 Returns: Tankers Turn Back Up for Magic Formula

Magic Formula led the journal at +2.43%, a complete reversal of Period 24's −2.88%, when it finished last. CANSLIM Rocket followed at +0.58%, and Lynch finished a hair below flat at −0.09%. Burry Value Screen, Schloss Dividend, Piotroski F-Score, and Quality Growth tied at −0.10%, each booking the sell fee on a full exit of its holdings.

Magic Formula's +2.43% was a near-mirror image of its Period 24 decline. TRMD led the screen, rising +16.55%, from $34.32 to $40.00, contributing approximately +1.27 percentage points at the screen's 7.69% weight — the largest single-position gain and the largest single contribution of the period on any screen, after its −10.23% in Period 24. HAFN gained +14.91% (+1.15 points) after falling −11.86%, INSW rose +9.63% (+0.74 points) after −4.96%, TNK added +9.60% (+0.74 points) after −6.79%, and DHT gained +8.72% (+0.67 points) after −6.40% — all five tanker names that led the screen's Period 24 losses more than recovered them. ERO edged up +0.11%. Against these, the screen's metals names fell: CENX declined −7.22% (−0.56 points), the screen's largest drag, BVN fell −5.37% (−0.41 points), and CGAU declined −5.01% (−0.39 points). OGC and DRD each fell roughly −3.6%, and FHI declined −3.03% (−0.23 points). Six of twelve retained positions closed positive. ADMA exited at the sell fee — in the same period it gained +3.62% in Lynch, where it remains — and no names enter for Period 26, shrinking Magic Formula from thirteen to twelve names. The result lifts Magic Formula's cumulative return to +3.50% from +1.05%, moving it back above Lynch into fifth.

The same five tanker names sent Magic Formula to the bottom of the table and then straight back to the top, in consecutive periods — without the screen changing a single holding in between.

CANSLIM Rocket's +0.58% was a far quieter follow-up to Period 24's +4.07%. LRCX led, gaining +10.24%, from $315.21 to $347.49, contributing approximately +0.51 percentage points at the screen's 5% weight, its second straight strong period after +9.41%. INTR rebounded +7.24% (+0.36 points) after two straight declines, CLS added +5.99% (+0.30 points), MPWR +5.29% (+0.26 points), FIX +4.17% (+0.21 points), NVDA +3.95% (+0.20 points), and APH +3.41% (+0.17 points). INOD, the standout of Period 24 at +21.12%, added just +1.24%. Against these, ARQT fell −6.54% (−0.33 points), the screen's largest drag, reversing its +6.07% from Period 24. AGI declined −5.91% (−0.30 points), and PAAS fell −5.27% (−0.26 points), shared with Lynch. ETON, HALO, LLY, and GLBE each fell between roughly −2% and −4%. Eleven of eighteen retained positions closed positive. AGX and MU exited at the sell fee — MU after three straight positive periods — and JBL and ROAD enter for Period 26, holding CANSLIM Rocket at twenty names. The result lifts CANSLIM Rocket's cumulative return to +15.29% from +14.62%, extending its hold on second place.

Lynch's −0.09% came from an almost perfectly balanced book. BZ led the gainers, rising +5.10%, from $14.11 to $14.83, contributing approximately +0.36 percentage points at the screen's 7.14% weight, after two straight declines. CVE added +4.75% (+0.34 points), reversing its −5.18% from Period 24, ADMA gained +3.62% (+0.26 points), and PLMR rebounded +2.02% (+0.14 points) after its −8.83% slide. RELY, SKHY, SKWD, and ATAT each added smaller gains. Against these, PAAS fell −5.27% (−0.38 points), the screen's largest drag and its second straight decline, shared with CANSLIM Rocket. HRMY declined −3.93% (−0.28 points), FSM fell −3.76% (−0.27 points), OGC declined −3.63% (−0.26 points), shared with Magic Formula, and PDD and KSPI each fell between roughly −2% and −3%. Eight of fourteen retained positions closed positive. No names exited; MU — which just exited CANSLIM Rocket — and PLGO enter for Period 26, growing Lynch from fourteen to sixteen names. The result trims Lynch's cumulative return to +1.57% from +1.66%, and Magic Formula's gain drops it back to sixth.

Burry Value Screen, Schloss Dividend, Piotroski F-Score, and Quality Growth each returned no qualifying names at the October 3 snapshot. Under the journal's methodology, a stock that drops off a screen is treated as exited at its last snapshot price, with no price change assumed and a 0.1% sell fee applied — and with every holding exiting at once, each of the four screens books exactly −0.10% for the period, regardless of how its stocks actually traded. That covers forty-three positions for Burry Value Screen, fifteen for Schloss Dividend, thirteen for Piotroski F-Score, and thirteen for Quality Growth, whose lineup had been unchanged since DRD's entry ahead of Period 22. None of the four has any entrants for Period 26, so all four begin the next period holding no positions. Their cumulative returns slip by the fee alone: Quality Growth to +27.02% from +27.14%, Schloss Dividend to +7.93% from +8.04%, Burry Value Screen to +7.09% from +7.20%, and Piotroski F-Score to −16.45% from −16.37%.

Retention: Four Screens Empty Out

Retention split to the extremes this period. Lynch was the only screen to keep every name it started with, improving to a perfect 100% from Period 24's 93.3%. Magic Formula slipped to 92.3% from 100% on ADMA's exit, and CANSLIM Rocket to 90.0% from 100% on the exits of AGX and MU. Burry Value Screen, Schloss Dividend, Piotroski F-Score, and Quality Growth — four of the five screens that posted perfect retention in Period 24 — all fell to 0%.

Setting the four empty screens aside, turnover among the remaining three was light: three exits in total — Magic Formula's ADMA and CANSLIM Rocket's AGX and MU — against four entrants, CANSLIM Rocket's JBL and ROAD and Lynch's MU and PLGO. The four empty screens alone account for eighty-four exits, and the retention spread widens to the full 100 points from Period 24's 6.7.

Cumulative Scoreboard: Magic Formula Retakes Fifth

Magic Formula's +2.43% lifted its cumulative return from +1.05% to +3.50%, carrying it past Lynch, which slipped from +1.66% to +1.57%, and back into fifth. CANSLIM Rocket's +0.58% lifted it to +15.29% from +14.62%, cutting Quality Growth's lead to 11.73 points from 12.52. Quality Growth held first, Schloss Dividend held third, Burry Value Screen held fourth, and Piotroski F-Score remained last.

With four screens moving by the fee alone, the middle of the table barely shifted: Schloss Dividend still leads Burry Value Screen by 0.84 points in the race for third, the same margin as a week ago. Magic Formula now sits 1.93 points ahead of Lynch in the contest for fifth, after trailing it by 0.61. Piotroski F-Score's cumulative loss edged to −16.45% from −16.37%.

The benchmarks split, and so did the alpha picture. The S&P 500's cumulative return eased to +13.88% from +14.18%, while the NASDAQ's rose to +19.80% from +19.26%. Every screen's alpha against the S&P 500 improved; against the NASDAQ, only Magic Formula and CANSLIM Rocket, whose gains outpaced the index's +0.45%, improved. CANSLIM Rocket's S&P 500 alpha widened to +1.41% from +0.44%, and its NASDAQ alpha tightened to −4.51% from −4.64%. Quality Growth's alpha moved to +13.14% against the S&P 500 and +7.22% against the NASDAQ, from +12.96% and +7.88% — still the only screen with positive cumulative alpha against both benchmarks. Magic Formula made the largest move, to −10.38%/−16.30% from −13.13%/−18.21%. Schloss Dividend moved to −5.95%/−11.87% from −6.14%/−11.22%, Burry Value Screen to −6.79%/−12.71% from −6.98%/−12.06%, Lynch to −12.31%/−18.23% from −12.52%/−17.60%, and Piotroski F-Score to −30.33%/−36.25% from −30.55%/−35.63%.

Overlap: Eleven Stocks Down to Two

The October 3 snapshot shows just two stocks in two or more screens, down from eleven on September 26. With four screens returning no names, every pairing that involved Burry Value Screen, Schloss Dividend, Piotroski F-Score, or Quality Growth fell away — nine of the eleven. That includes ADMA, which also exited Magic Formula this period and is now held by Lynch alone. Only OGC and PAAS remain. MU, which moves from CANSLIM Rocket's exits into Lynch's entrants, changes hands rather than creating a new pairing.

Both remaining overlap names fell this period. PAAS's −5.27% was the sharper shared drag, weighing on both Lynch and CANSLIM Rocket for a second straight period, and OGC's −3.63% trimmed both Lynch and Magic Formula.

What Period 25 Tells You

A screen's result is only as complete as its snapshot. Four screens posted −0.10% this period, but that number describes the journal's exit rule, not how their stocks traded. The methodology's zero-price-change assumption for exits adds noise in any single period; this period, for four screens, it is the entire result.

Reversals can be as sharp as the moves they undo. Magic Formula's tanker names — TRMD, HAFN, INSW, TNK, DHT — dragged it to last place in Period 24 and carried it to first in Period 25, and every one of them ended above where it started two periods ago. Judging a screen on its latest period alone would have told two opposite stories in consecutive weeks.

Momentum can cool without breaking. CANSLIM Rocket's return fell from +4.07% to +0.58%, yet eleven of eighteen retained positions still closed positive and its alpha against the S&P 500 kept widening. A smaller gain is still a gain.

A flat result can hide plenty of movement. Lynch finished at −0.09%, but its holdings ranged from BZ's +5.10% to PAAS's −5.27%. Eight winners and six losers roughly cancelled out — a reminder that a near-zero period return says little about how much the individual positions moved.