Finding the right (systematic) investment strategy

I thought I was done with this project.

When I first published this flowchart in 2019, I knew there were many established multiple asset strategies left that I had not included (e.g. most strategies that use TAA). But after spending a lot of time doing the last version, I decided I had to stop somewhere. Despite that, I still kept adding strategies to a list during this last year in case I would ever get inspired to revamp this.

And then I was. And now I have.

These last couple of weeks, I have put an unhealthy amount of hours into redoing these flowcharts. With the addition of more than 60 new strategies(!), I decided to split the original flowchart into two parts. The flowchart for stocks/single asset classes is largely unchanged. I mainly took the section for asset diversification and put that in a separate flowchart together with all new strategies, which also happened to be focused on multiple asset classes.

I fully intend for you to be able to use both flowcharts to actually find a strategy that fits your preferences, even if some questions and answers are a bit tongue in cheek.
Obviously, a systematic investment strategy can take practically any shape or form. Here, I have tried to include most established strategies out there. But you will also find some lesser known ones, and a handful single factor strategies that are important enough to deserve their own place in these flowcharts.

The person with most contributions for each flowchart are Jim O’Shaughnessy (single asset classes) and Meb Faber (multiple asset classes), both with 10+ endings each at one of their strategies. They’ve really done an incredible job in developing great quantitative strategies that can be implemented by more or less anyone (myself for example).

For anyone interested in implementing one of the more complex TAA strategies, AllocateSmartly provides a huge amount of them at a reasonable cost.

Some of these are even available as ETFs, which makes it a lot easier for you to get started. It might even lead to lower overall costs depending on how expensive it would be for you to pay brokerage and screener costs yourself.

Here we go:

I do not expect that I will do any major changes to these flowcharts ever again, so consider them my legacy to the quant investing world.

If anyone has a question about any of the strategies mentioned, fire away. Keep in mind that I have personally only implemented a fraction of these myself, so I will at most be able to provide you with a link to where you can read more about it.

Enjoy!