Paper Index Methodology

Paper index: tickerseer calculates this from its own weekly ratings. It is not a fund or an ETF, it cannot be bought, and we show its returns before trading costs. Every week shown so far was calculated after the fact, from the ratings we published at the time.

The indices: Growth · Value · Short · all three.

Universe

Each week, the eligible names are the core universe we actually collected that week that also got a published rating. Up to the 2026-09-14 rebalance the core was the S&P 500. From the 2026-09-21 rebalance it is the MSCI World plus the S&P 500. Names we rate only because they report earnings that week, or because they trade next to a company that does, are never eligible.

From the October 5, 2026 rebalance, we leave out stocks traded over the counter, the five-letter tickers ending in Y or F (such as SFTBY or JPHLF), from all three indices and from the equal-weight benchmark. They trade thinly, and their prices are often stale conversions of the home listing. Our price source has returned negative closes for several of them, and they made up most of the names we could not price. They also cannot be borrowed, so a Short Index holding them would describe trades nobody could place.

Rows calculated after the fact count the core names we collected that week, from our collection log. Live rows count the names in our dataset after we remove the delisted and duplicate securities on our exclusion list, so the count drops by the size of that list at launch.

Selection

• Growth.
  • Eligible: core-universe names rated buy or strong buy that week.
  • Ranked by forecast growth rate, highest first. A rate above 300% is treated as a data error and left out.
  • From the October 5, 2026 rebalance: we leave out stocks traded over the counter. See the rules versions.
• Value.
  • Eligible: rated buy or strong buy, a dividend yield of at least 1.5%, and an S&P credit rating of BBB- or better.
  • Ranked by dividend yield, highest first.
  • From the October 5, 2026 rebalance: we leave out stocks traded over the counter, and we treat a dividend yield above 20% as a data error and skip the stock. See the rules versions.
• Short.
  • Eligible: core-universe names rated avoid that week.
  • Ranked by Bear Score, highest first. A weak forecast return, past estimate misses, a high earnings multiple and a low quality score all raise it. A company our data source does not score counts as average quality, never zero.
  • From the October 5, 2026 rebalance: we leave out stocks traded over the counter. See the rules versions.
• Each index holds at most 25 names. Ties go to the ticker that sorts first alphabetically.

Weighting and rebalancing

Every name gets the same weight, reset each week. With fewer than 10 qualifying names, each holds 1/10 of the index and the rest sits in cash, which earns nothing.

A period runs from one rebalance to the next. That is usually a week, and two weeks when we missed a rebalance. The fact sheets count periods, not weeks.

Rules versions

• Version 1, in force from August 3, 2026: Rules as first published.
• Version 2, in force from October 5, 2026: Value: a dividend yield above 20% is treated as a data error and left out, like a growth rate above 300%. All three indices and the equal-weight benchmark leave out stocks traded over the counter (five-letter tickers ending in Y or F).

A rule change applies from its date forward. Weeks already calculated keep the rules they were calculated under, and the level chains through the change.

Timing and prices

Ratings go out early on Monday, before the market opens, so a rebalance enters at that Monday's close, or the next trading day's close when Monday is a holiday. It exits at the next rebalance's entry close. Prices are closes adjusted for splits and dividends, so the two long indices include dividends. We calculate each week's return once and store it. We never overwrite it. A correction adds a new row beside it.

A name with no close on the entry day or the exit day earns 0% that week, and the fact sheet shows how many there were. That includes a company that stops trading partway through the week. We do not use an earlier price as its exit, because in our price data a halted stock looks the same as a day the data simply left out. The Short Index resets each week. Prices are adjusted for dividends, so a shorted company's dividend already counts against the index. We do not model the cost of borrowing the shares.

Benchmarks

There are two: SPY, and an equal-weighted basket of every eligible name that week, both over the same sessions. SPY weights companies by size and the basket does not, so the basket separates the effect of our picks from the effect of equal weighting. We compare the Short Index with the inverse of both.

The equal-weight benchmark books a name with no usable price at 0% for that week, the same way the indices do. It never drops the name and reweights the rest.

No annualised figure is shown until an index has 52 periods of history.

Downloads

The CSV downloads (weekly returns, and every constituent of every rebalance) come with the Basic and Premium plans. See plans

Corrections

We never edit or remove a stored week. If we find we misread our own data, we add a corrected row beside the original and list it here with its date and effect.

• None so far.