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Finaxion Research · Wyckoff: buying the accumulation · single stocks · Recomputed 2026-09-10

Does Wyckoff: buying the accumulation work on UAL?

Wyckoff: buying the accumulation beats buy-and-hold on UAL by +4.2 points a year over 21 years.

Total return
661.2%
Buy and hold
240.6%
CAGR
10.4%
Sharpe
0.34
Max drawdown
-71.4%
Trades
135
Out of sample
overfit
Years
21
2007200920112013201520172019202120232025
StrategyUAL

Findings

  1. Wyckoff: buying the accumulation beats buy-and-hold on UAL by +4.2 points a year over 21 years.
  2. Against the S&P 500 over the same window: -0.8 points a year.
  3. Total return +661.2% versus +240.6% for buy-and-hold, with 135 trades.
  4. The result does not hold out of sample: it is overfit.
  5. Maximum drawdown -71.4%.
  6. It beats in both halves of the history (split at 2016).
  7. It ranks #37 of 227 markets for this strategy by annual excess over the S&P 500.

Findings derived from the full panel. Each carries its number and its denominator; the computations are reproducible with artifact 11e887f77aa5.

Exactly what was tested

Mechanical approximation: 20-bar range with an 8-bar test window; active accumulation state → long; state lost → flat.

How to read it

The verdict compares the strategy with buying and holding UAL over the same window, with round-trip costs per asset class. “Out of sample” is walk-forward: the rule is fit on one stretch and judged on the next. A result that beats in the full sample but not out of it is overfit. Full methodology in the protocol. How we test.

Open this backtest with its trades   Trades (CSV)

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How to cite

Finaxion Research (2026). Does Wyckoff: buying the accumulation work on UAL?. Daily backtest 1962-01-01–2026-08-31, artifact 11e887f77aa5. https://finaxion.app/en/research/wyckoff-accumulation/ual

Not a recommendation. Past performance does not guarantee future results.