The short of it
- Traderbot tests twelve asset allocation rules against the same 2017-01-03 to 2026-08-14 window, each starting from $10,000.00
- None of the twelve use a birth-year formula, so age and asset allocation are treated as separate questions on Traderbot
- Crypto Trend returned 48.0 percent a year but carried an 80.4 percent deepest fall, the roughest ride of the twelve
- Risk Parity had the shallowest deepest fall at 23.7 percent, while Sector Rotation lost money outright at -0.5 percent a year
- An S&P 500 fund held over the same window returned 13.7 percent a year, ahead of ten of the twelve strategies
How Traderbot handles asset allocation
An asset allocation strategy is really just a rule for deciding how much of a portfolio sits in which kind of asset, and when to change it. Traderbot tests twelve such rules against the same 2017-01-03 to 2026-08-14 window, starting each one from $10,000.00, rather than describing allocation in the abstract.
Some of the twelve follow a fund manager's reported weights. Others follow price trends, sector strength, or a fixed savings schedule. None of them promise a result, since every one of them also carries a drawdown and a commission bill, both counted below.
Why age based asset allocation is not one of the twelve
Searches for asset allocation by age and age based asset allocation usually want a single formula tied to a birth year, something close to subtracting age from a hundred to get a stock percentage. Traderbot carries no such rule.
Its strategies split money by signal, holding period and correlation between assets, not by the saver's date of birth. Age and asset allocation stay two separate questions here: a twenty-five-year-old and a sixty-year-old running the same Traderbot strategy get the same rule, applied the same way.
Twelve ways to split a portfolio
Institutional Consensus buys the shares the most managers bought last quarter and turned $10,000.00 into $32,381.38, 13.0 percent a year with a 46.9 percent deepest fall across 356 fills. Fund Mirror copies one manager's portfolio in the weights they reported and reached $17,820.18, 6.2 percent a year.
Dual Momentum holds the strongest index of the last year, or bonds, and ended at $22,239.50, 8.7 percent a year across only 41 fills. Trend 200 stays in while price sits above its long average and out while it sits below, reaching $20,744.96, 7.9 percent a year with a 25.1 percent deepest fall.
Risk Parity acts like an asset allocation strategist that never sleeps: the quieter asset gets the larger share, rebalanced by rule rather than by judgment. It turned $10,000.00 into $19,879.54 by 2026-08-16, 7.4 percent a year with a 23.7 percent deepest fall, the shallowest of the twelve.
Ladder 36 Plus pairs a hundred-dollar monthly saving plan with a momentum core and a small coin sleeve, closer to a strategic asset allocation strategy than a single trade rule. It turned the same $10,000.00 into $39,797.75 by 2026-08-16, 15.4 percent a year across 112 fills and $9,343.35 in commission.
| Strategy | What it does | Ended at | Annual return | Deepest fall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crypto Trend | Bitcoin and ether while the fast average leads the slow one | $433,052.62 | 48.0% | 80.4% |
| Ladder 36 Plus | Savings plan plus a momentum core and a coin sleeve | $39,797.75 | 15.4% | 43.7% |
| Institutional Consensus | Shares the most managers bought last quarter | $32,381.38 | 13.0% | 46.9% |
| Volatility Target | Less of the index while it moves a lot | $24,073.85 | 9.6% | 25.2% |
| Dual Momentum | Strongest index of the last year, or bonds | $22,239.50 | 8.7% | 43.7% |
| Trend 200 | In above the long average, out below it | $20,744.96 | 7.9% | 25.1% |
| Risk Parity | Quiet asset gets the larger share | $19,879.54 | 7.4% | 23.7% |
| Ladder 36 | Savings plan, monthly payment, three-year target | $19,252.46 | 7.0% | 28.3% |
| Fund Mirror | One manager's portfolio, in their weights | $17,820.18 | 6.2% | 21.8% |
| Capitol Flow | Shares House members reported buying | $12,051.65 | 2.0% | 60.0% |
| Insider Cluster | Companies with three or more officers buying inside a month | $10,771.27 | 0.8% | 35.1% |
| Sector Rotation | Three strongest sectors of the last six months | $9,508.82 | -0.5% | 36.6% |
Risk as well as return
An S&P 500 fund held over the same 2017-01-03 to 2026-08-14 window returned 13.7 percent a year, ahead of ten of the twelve strategies above. Crypto Trend and Ladder 36 Plus finished ahead of it, but Crypto Trend's 80.4 percent deepest fall is more than three times the size of a plain index fund's worst stretch in the same period.
Commission tells its own part of the story. Crypto Trend paid $104,443.62 across 150 fills to reach its result, while Risk Parity paid $846.03 across 175 fills for a much smaller gain. A strategy with more trades is not automatically the one that pays more, since fill size and asset price matter just as much as fill count.
Sector Rotation is the one strategy on the list that lost money outright, ending at $9,508.82 after $6,961.66 in commission across 252 fills, a reminder that reading a strategy's rule does not tell a reader how it actually performed.
Where the product fits
Every strategy above runs on a simulated account. Traderbot holds no client funds and sends no order to an exchange, and it charges one percent of every operation that moves money on an account, whether that is a deposit, a withdrawal, a buy, a sell or a plan payment.
The full run of results, including the SEC form 13F filings behind Institutional Consensus and the Clerk of the House disclosures behind Capitol Flow, sits on the algorithms page alongside price history running back to 2014-01-01.