Concentrated
The fewest companies, in equal amounts, and the largest share of the money in a fund that returns twice the S&P 500's daily move — held while the index is above its moving average, sold when it falls clearly below it.
For an investor who accepts leverage. The fund is reviewed only in January and July, so a sudden fall in between is taken at twice the index's pace on that part of the book.
The record
Growth on money invested at the start, across 57 six-month periods from Jan 1998, net of costs, against the S&P 500 Total Return. It is ahead of that yardstick over every period shown. Ahead in 74% of individual six-month periods. The worst fall is measured on the half-yearly marks; marked at every month-end it was -43%. The fund is modelled throughout, from the daily S&P 500 Total Return and the 13-week Treasury bill, with running and borrowing costs calibrated to the real fund's record since its 2010 launch. How these figures are calculated.
Sectors, weights and the number of positions are published, and the fund line is shown by type. The company names and the fund itself are what the subscription is for. €19 a month after a seven-day trial, cancel any time.
What this cut holds
The same four measures, applied more strictly. Side by side with the 500 companies the book is drawn from: these businesses turn more of what they own into cash, hand more of it back for the share price, and publish their accounts sooner.
| Typical holding | Cash on assets | Free cash flow yield | Gross profit on assets | Days to file results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All 500 companies | 11.25% | 3.64% | 25.10% | 31 |
| Concentrated | 26.22% | 6.59% | 61.88% | 22.5 |
Each figure is the middle company in the group, so a single outlier cannot move it. The companies only: the fund is not in these figures. Individual scores and the order of the ranking are not published.
Do I have to wait for the next review to start?
No. The list is built from accounts filed months earlier, so a few weeks either way changes little to which companies it holds; the fund part simply follows the index from the day it is bought. Below is what Concentrated actually returned when bought late instead of on the day it was published, measured across 57 resets and annualised so the holding periods compare.
| If you had bought | Ahead of the index by |
|---|---|
| On publication day | +8.65% a year |
| 1 month later | +8.59% a year |
| 3 months later | +9.73% a year |
| 5 months later | +7.42% a year |
Those gaps are not nothing, and they run both ways — entering late helped in some periods and hurt in others. What the table does not show is a steady fade across the six months, which is the thing that would matter. Buying nearer the reset still leaves you better off, for the plain reason that the money was invested for longer.
Required disclosures · producer, method, ratings, conflicts
- Producer
- Purple Turtle, a research publication produced in a personal capacity in Denmark. Not authorised or supervised by Finanstilsynet: general investment research published identically to every reader does not require authorisation. The legal person behind Purple Turtle is named in full on the terms page.
- Completed and first disseminated
- Ranking completed on 31 July 2026, using filings and prices available on that date — it cannot have used anything later. The books in this edition were built from that ranking under the revised method described on the method page, completed on 1 October 2026, and first published on 1 October 2026. They replace the books previously published for this ranking. The holdings, their weights and the fund's share are fixed until the next ranking on 31 January 2027. Share prices shown alongside them are refreshed daily and are not part of the ranking.
- Methodology
- The 500 largest US companies by market value, excluding financials and utilities, are ranked on four measures: cash return on assets, free cash flow against price, gross profit against assets, and days taken to file quarterly results (reversed). Ranks are added with equal weight. This book holds 6 companies from the top of the ranking: a holding is kept while it ranks in the top 25, and empty places go to the highest-ranked companies not already held. The companies are weighted equally. 60% of the book is held in an exchange-traded fund that aims to return 2 times the daily return of the S&P 500, while the index stands above its average of the last 10 month-ends; when it falls more than 2.5% below it, that share moves into the companies. The bottom 250 are published as the exclusion list. No price targets are issued and no forecasts are made. Only accounts already filed with the regulator are used, plus 60 days. Full method.
- Rating scale and frequency
- Two ratings only: held (in the published book) and not held (removed). A company can be neither, and most are. There is no buy, sell or hold rating and no target price. Ratings are reviewed twice a year, in January + July, and do not change in between except where a company ceases to trade.
- Rating distribution
- Of the 500 companies covered this period: 1% held, 50% not held, and 49% neither — ranked above the exclusion line but outside this particular book. This publication covers the 6-company book.
- Holdings and conflicts
- The producer does not currently hold the published portfolios, and any position taken in a covered company will be disclosed with the ranking it concerns. No trade is made in any covered company from five trading days before publication to two trading days after. No position exceeds 0.5% of any issuer's share capital. No compensation of any kind has been received from any issuer, and no issuer has been shown this material before publication.
- Nature of this material
- General investment research, produced to a fixed method and published identically to every reader. It is not a personal recommendation: no assessment has been made of any reader's circumstances, objectives, or financial situation. Facts are distinguished from estimates throughout, and past performance does not predict future results. Your capital is at risk. Two of the books hold a leveraged fund, so their losses can be larger and come faster than the index's, and the fund's part of the backtested record is modelled from the index — calibrated to the real fund's record since 2010 — rather than taken from its market price.
- Availability
- Offered to residents of the EU, EEA and United States. Not offered to UK persons.