Period 5 covers May 10 to May 17, 2026 — seven calendar days. For the first time across all five periods, every single strategy produced a negative return. The S&P 500 added just +0.13% and the NASDAQ slipped −0.08%, making this one of the flattest market weeks in this journal. The losses cannot be attributed to a broad market selloff — they reflect idiosyncratic moves within each screen's holdings.
The headline development on the cumulative scoreboard is a crossover: CANSLIM Rocket's total return has fallen to +8.28%, now trailing the S&P 500's +9.25% for the first time. Through four periods, CANSLIM had maintained a lead over the index. Period 5's −0.85% result, against a flat market, closed that gap and pushed the screen below the benchmark. It is the clearest sign yet that the strategies tracked in this journal are moving on different rails from passive indices.
Best Screen
−0.41%
Screens Positive
0 / 7
Worst Screen
−3.77%
Overlap Stocks
7
Period 5 Returns: Nowhere to Hide
Quality Growth was the closest to flat at −0.41%, followed by CANSLIM at −0.85%. Both screens held a core of large-cap, high-quality names — ANET, FICO, NBIX, LLY, AVGO, NVDA — that absorbed the week's pressure better than the value and commodity-oriented screens. The spread between best and worst (3.36 percentage points) is the narrowest of any single period, but that is cold comfort when all seven screens land below zero.
| Strategy | Period 5 Return | Period 4 Return |
|---|---|---|
| S9 · Quality Growth | −0.41% | +2.03% |
| S8 · CANSLIM Rocket | −0.85% | +3.75% |
| S3 · Lunch | −1.95% | +0.49% |
| S7 · Piotroski F-Score | −2.47% | −2.04% |
| S6 · Magic Formula | −3.40% | +4.59% |
| S2 · Schloss Dividend | −3.52% | +2.14% |
| S1 · Burry Value Screen | −3.77% | +1.19% |
The Burry Value Screen's −3.77% was driven primarily by a single holding: Doximity (DOCS) collapsed from $25.98 to $18.97 — a −26.98% move in seven days. One stock carrying 1/36 of the portfolio can move the needle by roughly 0.75 percentage points, and DOCS did exactly that. Beyond DOCS, Fortuna Mining (FSM) fell −11.24% and IPAR dropped −8.81%, making this a bruising week for a screen that had held up across Periods 3 and 4. The loss on DOCS alone accounts for the majority of the underperformance relative to other screens.
Magic Formula shed −3.40% with 100% retention — the same portfolio it held in Period 4. DRD Gold fell −13.17%, International Seaways (INSW) dropped −7.68%, and DHT Holdings lost −7.16%. The gold and shipping names that rescued the screen in Period 4 gave back ground in Period 5. The screen's returns remain driven by the same sector concentration that created its prior volatility.
CANSLIM's −0.85% is the best outcome a screen with this level of volatility could hope for against a flat market. Fabrinet (FN) jumped +16.22% on strong earnings, and Eli Lilly (LLY) added +5.95%, NVDA +4.70%, and HALO +4.68%. Without FN's result, the screen would have landed much closer to the other value-oriented screens. One name absorbing most of the damage was DRD Gold (−13.17%), which appears in both CANSLIM and Magic Formula — the same cross-screen holding punishing both simultaneously.
When a flat market week produces losses across every screen, the culprit is not macro — it is name-specific volatility in concentrated positions. The week reveals how much single-stock risk each strategy carries.
Retention: A Broad Improvement
Period 5 shows a notable shift in portfolio stability: every single strategy posted higher retention than in Period 4 — a first across all five periods. Magic Formula returned to 100%, holding all ten positions unchanged despite ongoing commodity-sector volatility. Piotroski F-Score recovered sharply from its 68.8% reshuffling in Period 4 to 91.7%, retaining 11 of 12 positions. CANSLIM and Burry Value both held at 94.4%. Even Quality Growth, which had the lowest retention at 77.8%, improved from 60% last period.
Period 4 Retention
Period 5 Retention
The across-the-board retention improvement is a meaningful signal. Higher retention means the screens are selecting more stable sets of names — the underlying filters are not cycling through positions on a weekly basis. Whether this stability translates into better performance in the periods ahead, or simply means the screens are holding onto names as they fall, is the open question. Piotroski's recovery from 68.8% to 91.7% in a single period is particularly notable: INR (Infinity Natural Resources) was the only exit, replaced by LEGH and SCSC returning to the screen.
Cumulative Scoreboard: CANSLIM Loses Its Lead
Five periods in, CANSLIM Rocket (+8.28%) remains the top performer among strategies but now sits below the S&P 500 (+9.25%) for the first time. The gap is narrow — 97 basis points — but the direction of travel is clear. The index added +0.13% in Period 5 while CANSLIM shed −0.85%, and that seven-day window was enough to flip the relative standing.
Schloss Dividend (+1.91%) and Lunch (+1.61%) hold second and third place among strategies, both posting positive cumulative returns despite a difficult Period 5. Quality Growth (−0.22%) has slipped just below breakeven after three periods of negative returns were partially offset by a strong Period 4. Burry Value (−0.80%) crossed into red territory this period after DOCS's collapse erased its cumulative buffer.
| Strategy | Portfolio Value | Cumulative Return |
|---|---|---|
| S8 · CANSLIM Rocket | $10,828 | +8.28% |
| S2 · Schloss Dividend | $10,191 | +1.91% |
| S3 · Lunch | $10,161 | +1.61% |
| S9 · Quality Growth | $9,978 | −0.22% |
| S1 · Burry Value Screen | $9,920 | −0.80% |
| S7 · Piotroski F-Score | $9,539 | −4.61% |
| S6 · Magic Formula | $9,341 | −6.59% |
| Benchmark · S&P 500 | $10,925 | +9.25% |
| Benchmark · NASDAQ | $11,554 | +15.54% |
The NASDAQ's +15.54% cumulative gain stands 7.26 percentage points above CANSLIM's best result. This is significant because CANSLIM is explicitly designed to own the fastest-moving growth names in the market — yet the growth index has nearly doubled the screen's return over the same period. Part of the explanation is that the NASDAQ's gains have been heavily concentrated in a handful of names at the very top of market capitalisation, which no screen-based approach with equal weighting will replicate efficiently.
Overlap: Two New Signals, One Departure
The May 17 snapshot shows seven stocks appearing in two or more screens — the same total as Period 3, though with new composition. Two new overlaps appeared: APPF (AppFolio) entered the Burry Value Screen this period and was already present in Quality Growth, creating a new cross-screen pairing. HALO (Halozyme Therapeutics) entered Quality Growth after appearing in CANSLIM for several periods, making it a new healthcare cross-screen signal. Meanwhile, AUPH (Aurinia Pharmaceuticals) dropped out of the Burry Value Screen, ending three consecutive periods in the Burry/Quality Growth overlap.
Stocks in 2+ Screens · May 17, 2026
DRD Gold has now appeared in the Magic Formula / CANSLIM overlap for four consecutive periods — the longest unbroken cross-screen streak in this journal. The same stock that bounced +12.88% in Period 4 within Magic Formula and now sits down −13.17% in Period 5 illustrates how a persistent cross-screen signal is not the same as a stable one. Overlap indicates that multiple filters select the same name; it does not mean the name will hold its value. LUXE has similarly persisted in the Piotroski / CANSLIM overlap for multiple periods while declining steadily, down from $9.00 at the start of Period 4 to $7.59 at the close of Period 5.
What Five Periods Tell You
CANSLIM is still the leader, but the edge is gone. At +8.28% it sits 97 basis points below the S&P 500. The screen has delivered the strongest absolute result of any strategy in this journal, but systematic stock selection — even with a momentum tilt — has not outpaced passive indexing over this stretch. That observation is not a verdict at five periods, but it is a fact worth sitting with.
Magic Formula needs another period before any conclusions can be drawn. The screen has now alternated sharply: −7.54% cumulative through Period 3, a +4.59% bounce in Period 4, and now −3.40% in Period 5 with 100% retention. The gold and commodity names it holds are driving the entire return distribution. This is not diversification — it is concentrated sector exposure that happens to pass a value screen. At −6.59% cumulatively, the screen is 15.84 percentage points behind the S&P 500.
DOCS is a reminder of what a single-stock event does in a concentrated portfolio. Burry Value Screen holds 36 positions. One stock collapsing −26.98% in a week costs approximately 75 basis points of portfolio return — and that is exactly what happened. The screen's cumulative return flipped from positive to negative (+3.08% to −0.80%) in a single period, entirely because of one earnings-related move. Diversification within a screen of 30–40 names is not the same as diversification across sectors or market caps.
Piotroski's stabilisation deserves recognition. After being rebuilt from scratch in Period 1, the screen has now posted 91.7% retention and held a stable core of names for two consecutive periods. The period return of −2.47% is not the result of chaotic reshuffling this time — it reflects genuine price declines in held positions. That is a different kind of underperformance, and a more interpretable one.
The all-red period is a data point, not a disaster. Seven screens posting negative returns in a flat-market week is unusual, but the losses are small enough — ranging from −0.41% to −3.77% — that no single period is structurally significant. What matters is whether this pattern of underperforming a flat or rising market recurs. Period 6 will tell us whether the screens can recover, or whether the gap with passive benchmarks continues to widen.