Period 7 Review: Quality Growth's Cumulative Return Vaults Past CANSLIM to +16.86%

Period 7 covers May 23 to May 31, 2026 — eight calendar days. Five of seven strategies turned positive, matching the best distribution since Period 4. The S&P 500 gained +1.43% and the NASDAQ +2.39% over the period, a constructive backdrop that most screens captured only partially — the exception being CANSLIM Rocket, which more than tripled the NASDAQ's gain on the back of two outsized single-stock moves in semiconductors.

Micron Technology (MU) rose +29.3% over the period, from $751 to $971, and Super Micro Computer (SMCI) added +29.5%, from $35.58 to $46.09. Held at a 1-in-20 weight each, the two names together contributed roughly 2.94 percentage points of CANSLIM's +4.84% result. But the period-level story is a footnote to the cumulative one: Quality Growth's total return through seven periods now stands at +16.86%, ahead of CANSLIM's +14.30% for the first time in this journal.

Period 7 Returns: Semiconductor Earnings Dominate

CANSLIM's +4.84% marks its strongest single-period result in this journal, surpassing the +3.75% from Period 4. Beyond MU and SMCI, Sterling Infrastructure (STRL) added +17.5% ($732.94 → $860.84) and First Solar (FSLR) gained +19.0% ($257.85 → $306.79), together contributing another 1.82 percentage points. The remaining sixteen positions were close to a wash — Broadcom (AVGO, +7.9%) and Celestica (CLS, +4.9%) on the positive side against Fabrinet (FN, −7.1%), Corning (GLW, −6.6%), Insulet (PODD, −6.4%), and Lifeway Foods (LWAY, −5.3%) on the negative — netting roughly 0.08 points combined. A 20-position equal-weight screen with this kind of dispersion is performing exactly as designed: the strong names pull the average well above the index.

Quality Growth's +1.58% came primarily from Sezzle (SEZL), which surged +14.9% ($102.80 → $118.15) and contributed roughly 1.87 percentage points on its own — more than the screen's entire net return. The three positions that exited at period-end — APPF, HALO, and RDDT — each collected only the −0.10% sell fee. CNX was the main drag at −4.6%, while NBIX (+1.0%), FICO (+0.9%), and AUPH (+0.7%) were modestly positive. The screen's biggest reshuffle to date (detailed below) reshapes the portfolio heading into Period 8, with DAVE and ELMD entering as the two new positions.

Magic Formula's +0.57% ended two consecutive negative periods for the screen. Buenaventura (BVN) led at +10.3%, Centerra Gold (CGAU) added +7.3%, and Dillard's (DDS) gained +5.1% — precious metals and retail names carrying the screen. The single exit was IAG (IAMGOLD), which collected its −0.10% sell fee on the way out. Schloss Dividend was effectively flat at −0.01%, the closest to breakeven of any strategy this period: Mosaic (MOS) led at +6.2% and Ternium (TX) added +2.7%, offset by Associated Capital (DAC) −4.3%, Essent Group (ESNT) −4.8%, and Gerdau (GGB) −5.3% among its eight retained names.

Piotroski's +0.39% similarly reversed its Period 6 loss. Weidai (WDH) led the screen at +6.3% and Noah Holdings (NOAH) gained +5.6%. The screen added one new entrant (ASLE) while holding all ten existing positions. The mix was quiet — the Chinese small-cap names in this screen move on different rhythms than the semiconductor and growth names driving the journal's headline results.

MU and SMCI each surged roughly 30% in the same week. Together they contributed close to three percentage points to CANSLIM's result — the concentrated momentum payoff the screen is designed to capture, and why equal-weight construction at 5% per name turns a 30% stock move into a 1.5-point portfolio contribution.

Burry Value's near-flat +0.15% reflects the law of large numbers at 38 equal-weight positions. FSM led at +7.6%, DOCS (Doximity) continued its recovery at +7.3%, and DECK (Deckers) gained +6.7% — but RMD (ResMed) fell −8.4% and TDW (Tidewater) dropped −7.3%. With 38 names, each individual move is worth roughly 2.6 percentage points of weight; the strong gainers and strong losers largely cancelled out.

Lunch posted −0.65% as PDD (Pinduoduo) fell −10.7% ($94.52 → $84.44), a −0.82 percentage point drag at its 1-in-13 weight. Cenovus Energy (CVE) fell −8.3% (−0.64 points) and Palomar Holdings (PLMR) −6.0% (−0.46 points). FSM (+7.6%), Freshworks (FRSH, +6.9%), and Pan American Silver (PAAS, +5.7%) provided some offset, but the macro-sensitive positions on the losing side were heavier. FUTU, exited at the start of the period, contributed only its −0.10% sell fee.

Retention: Quality Growth at a New Low, Schloss Expands to 13

Period 7 produced four strategies at 100% retention — Burry Value, CANSLIM, Piotroski, and Schloss Dividend all held every existing position. The outlier is Quality Growth's 62.5% retention: three exits (APPF, HALO, RDDT) against a starting portfolio of eight names, the lowest retention rate of any strategy in this journal to date. APPF had been in the screen since Period 4; HALO and RDDT each entered one period prior. The three departures are replaced by DAVE (DaVita) and ELMD (Electromed), taking the screen from eight down to seven positions.

Schloss Dividend's 100% retention figure masks a structural expansion: the screen grew from 8 to 13 holdings by adding five new entrants at period-end — AGO, ATHM, JOYY, RDN, and REXR. REXR and AGO were both exited from Schloss in Period 6; ATHM appeared in earlier periods before rotating out. The screen's filter is identifying the same set of dividend-bearing value names a second time around. The five additions do not affect the Period 7 return — they enter at the snapshot price — but they reset the portfolio to its largest size since inception heading into Period 8.

Lunch's 92.3% retention reflects only the FUTU exit — the twelve remaining positions were held intact. Two new names join at period-end: Elastic (ESTC) and Magnite (MGNI), pushing the portfolio to fourteen positions and continuing its drift from the commodity-heavy lineup of Periods 3–5 toward a mix that includes SaaS and ad-tech names alongside the metals and EM positions.

Cumulative Scoreboard: Quality Growth Reclaims the Lead

Seven periods in, the cumulative leaderboard has a new name on top. Quality Growth's compounded return through Period 7 stands at +16.86% — 2.56 percentage points ahead of CANSLIM Rocket's +14.30%, which had been the outright leader since Period 4. Quality Growth is now the only strategy in this journal running more than five points ahead of the S&P 500 (+11.78%), and it has closed to within 1.98 percentage points of the NASDAQ (+18.84%) — the tightest any strategy here has come to matching the index.

The lead traces to two holdings, one closed and one still open. Piper Sandler (PIPR), held only through Period 1 and exited at the start of Period 3, returned a genuine, split-adjusted +26.8%: the stock's 4-for-1 split is already reflected in both the entry and exit prices ($287.79 to $91.23), so the gain is real portfolio value, not a data artifact. FICO, the screen's other pillar, entered at $1,035.50 at the close of Period 3 and has compounded to $1,250.59 through Period 7 — a +20.8% gain held across four consecutive periods, including this period's own +0.9% move. Between them, PIPR and FICO account for the large majority of Quality Growth's advantage over the other six strategies tracked here.

CANSLIM Rocket, the prior leader, remains a strong second at +14.30% and continues to beat the S&P 500 by 2.52 percentage points — a real, sustained alpha over seven periods. But it now trails both Quality Growth and, more persistently, the NASDAQ, which sits 4.54 points above it. Schloss Dividend holds third place at +4.36%, a result built through six distinct portfolio reshuffles rather than a small number of large winners — a different, more turnover-heavy route to a still-positive cumulative return.

The bottom half of the table is unchanged in shape from Period 6. Burry Value (+1.23%) and Lunch (−1.48%) sit closest to breakeven; Piotroski (−4.65%) and Magic Formula (−7.40%) continue to trail, each having clawed back a small fraction of its multi-period decline this period without finding a catalyst large enough to close the gap.

Overlap: Down to Five, Two Departures Driven by Quality Growth's Reshuffle

The May 31 snapshot shows five stocks in two or more of the seven fully-tracked screens, down from seven at the May 23 snapshot. The two departures are APPF and HALO, both exited from Quality Growth at the end of the period, which removed them from the Burry Value / Quality Growth and CANSLIM / Quality Growth overlaps respectively. The five remaining signals have all held their cross-screen positions since at least May 17.

DRD Gold has appeared in the Magic Formula / CANSLIM Rocket overlap at every snapshot since it joined Magic Formula at the April 22 rebalancing — seven consecutive readings through the close of Period 7. Over that stretch the stock has moved from $34.22 at its original Period 1 entry in CANSLIM to $26.40 today, a cumulative decline of roughly 23% even as the two screens' agreement on the name has never wavered. LUXE tells a similar story: it has been in the Piotroski / CANSLIM overlap since Period 2 and has declined from $9.00 to $7.03 over the same stretch. Persistent cross-screen agreement is a structural filter signal, not a price forecast.

What Period 7 Tells You

Quality Growth's cumulative lead is now the story of this journal, not CANSLIM's. At +16.86%, it sits 2.56 points ahead of CANSLIM and within two points of the NASDAQ — a position built on a closed, split-adjusted +26.8% gain in Piper Sandler and a still-open +20.8% run in FICO. Both are real, priced moves. Whether the lead is durable now depends on the five names Quality Growth currently holds (AUPH, CNX, FICO, NBIX, SEZL) plus the two just added (DAVE, ELMD) — not on the legacy PIPR position that already left the screen five periods ago.

Two names doing the work of a portfolio is a feature, not a flaw, in CANSLIM's design. A momentum screen holding twenty positions at equal weight is explicitly built to own names that move. MU and SMCI each moved roughly 30% in the same week, and at 5% position sizing each contributed close to 1.5 percentage points to the portfolio. The screen doesn't need all twenty names to work in a given period — it needs the names that are working to already be in the portfolio.

Quality Growth's 62.5% retention is the most aggressive single-period reshuffle in this journal, arriving in the same period its cumulative lead became decisive. Three exits from an eight-name portfolio — APPF, HALO, RDDT — means more than a third of the screen turned over in one rebalancing cycle. Whether that reflects healthy active filtering or instability in the underlying factor thresholds is a question Period 8 will start to answer, and it now matters more than it did a period ago: the screen replacing over a third of its names each cycle is also the one currently leading the field.

Schloss Dividend's expansion to 13 holdings re-tests the value thesis a second time. Five names — AGO, ATHM, JOYY, RDN, REXR — return to the screen after exiting in earlier periods. If the exits were a valuation call, the re-entries suggest the filter is seeing value again at current prices. Whether that timing is right will show up in whether Schloss's +4.36% cumulative return — built through six reshuffles rather than a small number of large winners — starts compounding faster from here.

The NASDAQ's remaining edge is now measured in single digits for the first time. At +18.84% cumulative, the index still leads every strategy in this journal, but the gap to the leader has closed from double digits to 1.98 percentage points. Whether Quality Growth can close the rest of that gap — or whether the index's concentration in a handful of mega-cap names keeps it just out of reach — is the clearest open question heading into Period 8.