S&P 500 continues to rally – Quant Portfolios made a strong rebound – Update 08/17/26

Jesse Livermore was a legendary American stock trader

Position Trader

Aug 17, 2026

Quant Weekly – Up over 80% since June 2025
Quant 30 – Up over 76% since June 2025
Legacy – Up over 350% since April 2023
Education – Jesse Livermore was a legendary American stock trader

USA Stock market week ending 08/14/26

SPY (S&P 500 ETF): +0.4% — The S&P 500 posted a modest weekly gain, extending its recent advance.
^IXIC (Nasdaq Composite): +0.1% — The Nasdaq was essentially flat for the week, finishing with a small gain.
DIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF): -0.5% — The Dow declined modestly and underperformed the broader market.
IWM (Russell 2000 ETF): +1.2% — Small-cap stocks outperformed the major large-cap indexes during the week.
SPMO (Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF): +2.4% — Momentum stocks were the strongest performer among the indexes and ETFs tracked here.

Market Drivers this Week (08/17/26 – 08/21/26)

Monday, 8/17 — Manufacturing and Housing Sentiment

Empire State Manufacturing Survey for August is released at 8:30 AM ET, providing an early regional read on manufacturing activity.
NAHB Housing Market Index for August follows at 10:00 AM ET, offering a gauge of homebuilder sentiment.
The earnings calendar is relatively light, with Fabrinet (FN) and XPeng (XPEV) among the companies reporting.

Tuesday, 8/18 — Heavy Economic Data and Home Depot

Housing Starts and Building Permits for July, along with Import and Export Price Indexes, are released at 8:30 AM ET.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for July follow at 9:15 AM ET, providing an important look at manufacturing activity.
Pending Home Sales for July are released at 10:00 AM ET, adding another measure of housing demand.

Wednesday, 8/19 — Major Retail Earnings and Fed Minutes

Target (TGT), Lowe’s (LOW), TJX Companies (TJX), and Estée Lauder (EL) report earnings, creating a significant consumer/retail earnings day.
The Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July meeting, an important event for investors assessing the Fed’s thinking on interest rates.

Thursday, 8/20 — Jobs, Manufacturing and Consumer Earnings

Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims provide the latest look at labor-market conditions.
The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for July is released at 10:00 AM ET and provides a broader gauge of the economy’s forward direction.
Walmart (WMT), Alibaba (BABA), Deere (DE), and Ross Stores (ROST) report earnings, giving investors additional insight into consumers, retail and industrial demand.

Friday, 8/21 — Flash PMI Data

S&P Global Flash Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMIs for August are released, providing the first major broad reading of current-month business activity.

The CNN Fear and Greed Index ends the week at 65, in the Greed area for the 2nd week in a row. It looks like the beginning of a bullish trend and the stock market has been very healthy the last two weeks.

The Quant Model Portfolios were up substantially this week. The Quant Weekly is now up 80% and Quant 30 up 76% since their start in the middle of last year. Beaten down Momentum stocks are making a strong rebound. I hope my subscribers took advantage of the depressed stock prices at the end of July to add to positions.

Note: You are reading the free subscriber newsletter. Paid subscribers enjoy instant access to weekly Model Portfolio updates upon release. Free subscribers get access to Portfolio updates after a three-week delay. Want timely access to the new Adds/Removes?

Model Portfolio Quant Alpha Weekly

Any newly added stock is being released to Paid Subscribers today. Below are the updates from three weeks ago. This Portfolio continues to significantly outperform its benchmark, 80% versus 26%. It has 29 members.

Top five Quant stocks in the Portfolio (Paid subscribers only).

Add (07/24/26) : None

Outperformers: SSRM (SSR Mining) up over +100%, MU (Micron Technology) up over +510%, TTMI (TTM Technologies) up over +120%, PARR (Par Pacific Holdings) up over +90%

Model Portfolio Quant 30

This week’s new update, if any, is being released to the paid subscribers. Shown below is the update made three weeks ago. This Portfolio continues to beat its benchmark by a wide margin, 76% to 26%. It has 30 members in it.

Top five Quant stocks in the Portfolio (Paid subscribers only).

Add (07/24/26): None

Remove (07/24/26): None

Outperformers: MU (Micron Technology) up over +690%, LITE (Lumentum Holdings) up over +280%, CRDO (Credo Technology) up over +120%, BTSG (BrightSpring Health) up over +170% and SNDK (Sandisk) up over +160%

Model Portfolio Quant Alpha’s – Legacy

The portfolio is up over +350% since it began in 2023. It has 17 stocks in it. Powell industries is now a 11 bagger. Celestica is now a 13 bagger

Top five Quant stocks in the Portfolio (Paid subscribers only).

Remove (07/24/26): None

Outperformers: AGX (Argan) up over +700%, STRL (Sterling Infrastructure) up over +800%, POWL (Powell Industries) up over +1100% and CLS (Celestica) is up over +1300%

Model Portfolio Quant Top Stock

This new Portfolio adds one new stock a week. A separate email is sent on Thursday morning detailing the selection, a shallow dive on the pros and cons of the stock and the criteria used for the Portfolio.

Add: PSX (Phillips 66) – Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing

Performance to 08-14-2026

Top Quant Stocks for this week – (Paid subscribers only feature)

Paid subscribers were presented with a list of the Top 10 Industrials.

Jesse Livermore — Who was he?

Jesse Livermore (1877–1940) was a legendary American stock trader and a pioneer of technical analysis. He began trading as a teenager and became famous for making—and later losing—several large fortunes through highly leveraged speculation.
Livermore was known for major trades during the 1907 panic and 1929 stock-market crash, but his career also demonstrated the dangers of leverage, overconfidence and poor risk management.
His life and trading philosophy inspired Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre, and his principles—particularly those involving price action and trading psychology—continue to influence investors today.

Five takeaways from Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre for the Livermore principles

Big money comes from sitting tight when the trade is right.

One of Livermore’s most famous lessons was that finding the right investment is only half the battle. The patience to let a successful position develop can be even more difficult.

Cut losses and give successful positions room to work.

Livermore emphasized protecting capital when a trade was wrong while giving profitable positions time to develop. This remains one of the most important principles of risk management.

The biggest enemy is often psychology.

Livermore’s experiences demonstrated how fear, greed, hope, impatience and overconfidence can undermine even a sound strategy. Controlling emotions is therefore as important as analyzing the market.

Wait for the market to confirm an opinion before committing significant capital.

Livermore recognized that being early isn’t necessarily the same as being right. Waiting for market confirmation can reduce the risk of committing too much capital based solely on a prediction.

The goal isn’t to be a bull or a bear — it’s to be on the right side.

Livermore believed traders should remain flexible rather than become emotionally attached to a particular market direction. The objective is to follow the evidence and change course when the market proves the original view wrong.

My View of Livermore’s Lessons

I’ve come to see Livermore’s approach as being less about predicting the market and more about discipline, patience, and controlling my own behavior. I need to respect the market’s direction, wait for confirmation, cut losses when I’m wrong, and give profitable positions room to develop.
The biggest lesson for me is that having a good strategy isn’t enough—I have to follow it consistently. Avoiding tips, resisting the temptation to average down, limiting unnecessary trading, and remaining disciplined after both wins and losses can be more important than finding the perfect trade.

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All content on this site is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Consult relevant financial professionals in your country of residence to get personalized advice before you make any trading or investing decisions. This post was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The original ideas and final review are human-generated.

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