Early academic tester of relative strength
Robert A. Levy
Robert A. Levy published one of the first academic tests of relative-strength stock selection, 'Relative Strength as a Criterion for Investment Selection', in the Journal of Finance in December 1967. His rule bought stocks trading well above their average price over the previous 27 weeks.
What they argue
- Buying stocks whose current price is well above their 27-week average price earned significant abnormal returns (as summarised by Jegadeesh & Titman, 1993).
- The higher a stock's relative-strength ranking, the better it tended to perform over the following six months.
Sources
RePEc/IDEAS: Journal of Finance 22(4), 1967Nasdaq/Zacks: Are you ignoring a predictive stock indicator? (2015)Jegadeesh & Titman (1993) PDF, intro discussing Levy
Summaries are Be The Puck's paraphrase of public material. Be The Puck has no affiliation with the people listed.
Books and papers
- Relative Strength as a Criterion for Investment Selection, Journal of Finance 22(4): 595–610 (1967)
Levy 27-week relative strength
Rule and full recordMomentum · weekly
One of the first academic momentum tests: own stocks trading well above their 27-week average, and stronger than the market on the same measure.
In right now122 of 377As of the Oct 13, 2026 close.
Best risk-adjusted results against buy and hold: