XLV - The trend is your friend -- what stock market strategy worked in July

ryasick/E+ via Getty Images Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of stock price performance is recent performance. In other words, what worked recently is most likely to keep working. So: What worked in July? By style: Value strategies failed to perform in July after leading in March, May and June. This opened the door for internal financial operating characteristics in individual equities to take center stage among factor strategies. A strategy whereby you bought stocks that screened strongly for historical growth in adjusted operating cash flow, net profit margins and operating earnings while shorting stocks that screened poorly among those attributes was the strongest this past month. Notably, the only value characteristic among the factor list compiled by S&P Capital IQ was the solvency ratio. More traditional fundamentals involving capital efficiency and earnings quality, which have struggled this year (most are negative) rounded out the top 30.  Should you

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The trend is your friend -- what stock market strategy worked in July