Period 6 Review: Quality Growth's Cumulative Lead Clears the S&P 500 as FUTU Guts Lunch's Season

Period 6 covers May 17 to May 23, 2026 — six calendar days. After Period 5's all-red shutout, four of seven strategies turned positive. The S&P 500 added +0.88% and the NASDAQ +0.45% — a muted but positive backdrop that allowed the quality and value-oriented screens to recover, while commodity and momentum-driven names split. The result is the first split period since Period 4.

The bigger story sits in the cumulative column. Quality Growth's FICO-driven +2.98% pushed its six-period total to +15.04%, putting it 4.84 percentage points ahead of the S&P 500's +10.20% cumulative gain and within 1.03 points of the NASDAQ's +16.07%. Six periods in, Quality Growth is the first strategy in this journal to sit ahead of the S&P 500 on a cumulative basis — and it has never posted a negative cumulative return at any snapshot along the way.

The period-level headline is a single stock: Futu Holdings (FUTU) fell −33.3% over the period, collapsing from $134.64 to $89.76. FUTU was a retained position in the Lunch screen, holding a 1-in-12 weight. Its contribution of roughly −2.77 percentage points accounts for the entirety of Lunch's −2.40% loss — the rest of the portfolio was slightly net positive. Period 5 delivered the DOCS lesson; Period 6 delivers the FUTU lesson. Concentrated, equal-weight screens magnify single-stock volatility in both directions.

Period 6 Returns: Recovery with a Caveat

Quality Growth led at +2.98%, its strongest single-period result in this journal. FICO (Fair Isaac) surged +12.86%, from $1,098.59 to $1,239.91, carrying roughly 1.61 percentage points of portfolio return on its own. AppFolio (APPF) added +8.71%, contributing another 1.09 points. The two names together account for essentially the entire period gain — the other six positions in the screen were a near-wash. This is high-concentration quality in action: when the right names move, the return is crisp; when they don't, the screen underperforms. Sezzle (SEZL) contributed +0.53% on a +4.24% move, rounding out the positive contributors.

Schloss Dividend posted +2.42% despite undergoing its most significant reshuffle yet: four positions exited (AGO, KBH, LEN, REXR) and no new entrants arrived, dropping the screen from 12 to 8 holdings. The four departed stocks absorbed a small sell-fee drag. The eight retained names compensated strongly — Ternium (TX) gained +9.84%, Meritage Homes (MTH) +8.55%, and Thor Industries (THO) +3.95%. The screen's thesis — dividend-bearing value names at depressed multiples — found reward in domestic homebuilders and steel this week despite the headline-level turnover.

The Burry Value Screen's +1.90% represents a direct reversal of Period 5's damage. Badger Meter (BMI) jumped +10.16%, NVR added +8.51%, AppFolio +8.71%, and Cirrus Logic (CRUS) +7.18%. The homebuilder complex broadly recovered: PHM +5.74%, TOL +6.43%. The sole new entrant, Deckers Outdoor (DECK), contributed nothing as a period-end addition. The headwind came from Watsco (WSO), which fell −6.94% and subtracted roughly 0.19 points from the return.

CANSLIM's +0.68% is quiet but consistent. First Solar (FSLR) delivered the standout move at +10.50%, and Eli Lilly (LLY) added +5.98%. These were partially offset by NVIDIA (NVDA) −4.43%, Broadcom (AVGO) −2.60%, and Fabrinet (FN) −2.52%. The screen held all 20 positions unchanged — 100% retention — and generated a positive return in a week where momentum names were mixed. The muted result continues the pattern of CANSLIM outperforming in strong markets but capturing only a fraction of benchmark gains when indices are flat-to-modest.

FUTU's −33% collapse is a textbook reminder that equal-weight screens don't eliminate stock-specific risk — they distribute it uniformly. One position out of twelve carrying the full loss of a single earnings event is the design working as intended, and the cost of that design in this instance.

Retention: Three Perfect Scores, One Major Reshuffle

Period 6 produced three strategies at 100% retention — Burry Value, Lunch, and CANSLIM held all positions from the prior snapshot — which gives an unusually clean read on price performance for those screens. Schloss Dividend's 66.7% was the lowest of any strategy in any single period to date. The four exits represent a fundamental change in the screen's composition, not price-driven volatility. The resulting eight-stock portfolio is more concentrated than it has been at any point in this journal. Piotroski shed three names (ASLE, LEGH, SCSC) on a 76.9% retention, moving toward a more compact ten-stock portfolio.

Quality Growth swapped ANET (Arista Networks) for RDDT (Reddit). ANET had been in the screen since Period 4, posting mixed returns across that stretch. RDDT re-enters at $141.67, having previously appeared in Periods 4 and 5 before rotating out. The screen's eight-name structure means each rotation carries meaningful weight. Magic Formula dropped HMY (Harmony Gold) while holding the other twelve positions — a minor adjustment in a commodity-heavy portfolio that otherwise remained unchanged for a second consecutive period.

Cumulative Scoreboard: Quality Growth Clears the Index

Six periods in, Quality Growth (+15.04%) is the outright cumulative leader among the seven strategies tracked here — and the only one ahead of the S&P 500. The lead traces to two sources: a genuine, split-adjusted +26.8% Period 1 gain in Piper Sandler (PIPR), a position closed after Period 2 that still compounds through the total, and FICO's steady run since entering the screen in Period 4. This period's FICO-driven +2.98% alone added +3.33 percentage points to the cumulative figure — the largest single-period cumulative gain of any strategy this period. Quality Growth has not posted a negative cumulative return at any snapshot across six periods. CANSLIM Rocket holds second place at +9.02%, still trailing the S&P 500 by 1.18 percentage points. Burry Value (+1.08%) crossed back above zero this period, reversing Period 5's DOCS-driven dip to −0.80%. Schloss Dividend (+4.38%) overtook Burry Value for third place, adding +2.47 cumulative points on the back of its homebuilder and steel names.

Against the benchmarks: the S&P 500 now sits at +10.20% and the NASDAQ at +16.07% since inception. Quality Growth is the first strategy in this journal to beat the S&P 500 cumulatively, a distinction that still rests significantly on a single legacy holding (PIPR, closed since Period 2) and on FICO's ongoing +19.7% run since Period 4. CANSLIM, by contrast, continues to trail the S&P by 1.18 percentage points — roughly the same gap as at the end of Period 5. Whether Quality Growth's lead is durable now depends entirely on the seven names it currently holds, not the position that already left the screen — that is the open question for the periods ahead.

Lunch's cumulative flip — from +1.61% to −0.83% in a single period — mirrors exactly what DOCS did to Burry Value in Period 5. The mechanism is identical: a retained position in a concentrated equal-weight screen experiences a large earnings-driven move, and the resulting portfolio impact is amplified by the equal-weight construction. Lunch had been one of the more resilient screens through Periods 2–4; it now sits below breakeven on the back of two consecutive negative periods, with FUTU accounting for the entirety of this period's damage.

Overlap: The Same Seven Signals, Now for Two Consecutive Periods

The May 23 snapshot shows the same seven stocks appearing in two or more non-partial screens as Period 5 — no new entries, no departures. This is the first time the overlap composition has held perfectly stable across consecutive periods. Every signal from Period 5 persisted: AEM, APPF, CALM, DRD, FSM, HALO, and LUXE.

DRD Gold has now appeared in the Magic Formula / CANSLIM Rocket overlap at every snapshot date since April 22 — six consecutive snapshots across five periods. Over that stretch, DRD has moved from $29.00 to $34.22 (Period 1 entry) to $29.00 (Apr 22 reentry) to $26.78 to $30.23 to $26.25 to $25.95. The stock oscillates but the overlap persists. Persistent overlap does not mean price stability. LUXE has been in the Piotroski / CANSLIM overlap equally long and has declined steadily from $9.00 at the start of Period 2 to $6.98 today. Cross-screen agreement on a name is a structural filter signal, not a price forecast.

What Six Periods Tell You

Quality Growth's cumulative lead is now the story of this journal. At +15.04%, it is the first strategy in six periods to sit ahead of the S&P 500 (+10.20%) on a cumulative basis, and it has never posted a negative cumulative return at any snapshot along the way. The lead has two clearly separable sources: a genuine, split-adjusted +26.8% Period 1 gain in Piper Sandler that closed out after Period 2 but permanently lifted the compounding base, and FICO's steady +19.7% run since entering the screen in Period 4. Both are real, priced moves — not artifacts — but the screen's forward performance now depends on the seven names it currently holds, not the one that already left.

FUTU repeats the DOCS lesson, and the lesson is structural. Two consecutive periods, two screens, two large single-stock events that dominated the portfolio return. In Period 5 it was DOCS in Burry Value (−27%); in Period 6 it is FUTU in Lunch (−33%). Equal-weight construction does not reduce name-specific risk — it allocates it evenly and then magnifies it arithmetically. A screen with twelve positions is 8.3% exposed to each name. One large enough move in any holding can define the period.

CANSLIM's +9.02% lead is real but no longer the top of the table. The gap between CANSLIM and the S&P 500 has been negative for two periods now — the screen trails by 1.18 percentage points. Across six periods, CANSLIM has been a consistently positive strategy, but the passive benchmark has outpaced it since Period 4, and Quality Growth has now moved well ahead of it too. The NASDAQ at +16.07% remains 7.05 percentage points above CANSLIM's cumulative result. Equal-weight momentum screens do not replicate the top-heavy composition that has driven index returns in this period.

Quality Growth's FICO position is a defining holding, but not the only one. FICO entered the screen at $1,035.50 at the close of Period 3 and has compounded to $1,239.91 through Period 6 — a +19.7% gain held across Periods 4 through 6. At its current weight in a seven-stock portfolio, FICO contributes roughly 2.8 percentage points of cumulative return to Quality Growth. That leaves the balance of the screen's +15.04% cumulative result resting on the now-closed PIPR position and the other six current holdings — a mix that is more durable than a single-stock story, but still concentrated.

Schloss Dividend's climb to third place cumulatively is underappreciated. At +4.38% it holds the third-best cumulative return of any strategy, achieved through five distinct sets of holdings — the screen has reshuffled more than any other strategy, yet the accumulated return is positive and growing. The Period 6 result (+2.42%) despite a 66.7% retention rate suggests the filter is selecting names at the right point in their valuation cycle, not just holding a stable set of names.

The overlap's stability is a different kind of signal. Seven stocks holding their cross-screen positions for two consecutive periods is the most stable reading in this journal. It suggests the underlying filters — across value, growth, and momentum methodologies — are converging on a set of names they collectively find compelling. Whether that convergence reflects genuine quality or shared screening artifacts is worth monitoring as Period 7 approaches.