Does buying 52-week highs beat the S&P 500?
Across 94 of 220 tickers between 2015-01-01 and 2024-12-31, average return was 94.33%, average max drawdown -16.37%.
A clear edge: +94.33% mean return across 94 tickers, with -16.37% average drawdown — meaningful return for the risk taken.
What we tested
We want to ride strength by buying when stocks make a fresh 52 week closing high. Enter long the next open after a daily close that is strictly above the highest close of the previous 252 trading days. Skip the entry if there has been any other 52 week high in the previous 30 trading days, so we only act on truly fresh breakouts. On entry, place a protective stop 1.5 ATR below the entry price using the 14 period ATR. Size the position so a stop-out loses exactly 1 percent of account equity. Round down to a whole number of shares. Trail the stop daily to the lowest close of the previous 20 trading days, only ever raising it, never lowering it. Exit at the next open the first time this trailing stop is hit. If the position has been held for 200 trading days without being stopped out, exit at the next open as well. Long only. One open position per ticker at a time. No leverage and no pyramiding.
- Window
- 2015-01-01 → 2024-12-31
- Universe
- 220 tickers
- Ranking metric
- return_pct

Overall results
Aggregated across 94 runsEqual-weighted mean of total return across symbols that completed. · 1 codegen refinement on pilot
Unweighted mean across successful runs.
94 completed · 126 failed
Mean of worst peak-to-trough per symbol.
Aggregate gross profit ÷ gross loss.
Summed over successful symbols.
Return distribution
How the 94 tickers split up across return_pct buckets. Reads left to right from worst to best.
- ≤ -10%0 (0.0%)
- -10% to -5%0 (0.0%)
- -5% to -1%0 (0.0%)
- −1% to +1%6 (6.4%)
- +1% to +5%2 (2.1%)
- +5% to +10%3 (3.2%)
- > +10%83 (88.3%)
By sector
Top and flop names per GICS sector, ranked by return_pct.
Communication Services
13 / 20 completed- TTWO118.01%
- NFLX93.54%
- GOOG91.28%
- GOOGL86.90%
- TMUS85.52%
- WBD0.00%
- DIS14.97%
- CMCSA15.55%
- CHTR20.63%
- T26.80%
Consumer Discretionary
11 / 20 completed- AMZN106.12%
- LOW78.76%
- HD76.57%
- TJX73.48%
- MCD70.31%
- NKE9.39%
- SBUX22.27%
- ULTA32.78%
- ROST45.18%
- YUM46.08%
Consumer Staples
9 / 20 completed- COST195.42%
- KO45.48%
- PEP43.57%
- CLX29.40%
- MDLZ18.80%
- EL0.00%
- SYY1.23%
- PM4.85%
- STZ17.30%
Energy
1 / 20 completed- VLO8.52%
Financials
4 / 20 completed- AON114.74%
- SPGI108.41%
- CME62.74%
- ICE54.11%
Health Care
12 / 20 completed- LLY284.90%
- ISRG187.00%
- DHR186.71%
- UNH105.31%
- SYK99.63%
- CVS0.00%
- MDT9.57%
- PFE13.88%
- JNJ29.75%
- CI34.14%
Industrials
4 / 20 completed- ITW71.62%
- LMT70.46%
- NOC57.66%
- HON51.24%
Information Technology
10 / 20 completed- NVDA3300.42%
- AVGO344.16%
- MSFT204.47%
- INTU140.85%
- ACN102.37%
- INTC0.00%
- CSCO48.63%
- CRM53.56%
- ADBE80.92%
- TXN87.69%
Materials
5 / 20 completed- MLM47.60%
- VMC34.89%
- ECL30.68%
- NEM11.97%
- DOW0.00%
Real Estate
13 / 20 completed- PLD84.14%
- DLR61.38%
- MAA48.68%
- EQIX47.28%
- EQR37.23%
- INVH-0.05%
- O13.36%
- AVB14.72%
- CCI15.97%
- EXR32.69%
Utilities
12 / 20 completed- NEE84.70%
- SO59.22%
- PEG58.44%
- XEL52.14%
- WEC50.62%
- ES14.02%
- ED24.93%
- AEP34.90%
- CMS39.46%
- DTE48.01%
Disclaimer
Past performance does not predict future results. This is a backtest over a fixed historical window and it does not model execution costs, borrowing, taxes, or survivorship of the universe. Nothing here is investment advice.
Generated Apr 23, 2026 · slug 52-week-high-momentum