The leaderboard is a rear-view mirror.
Five factors, ten illustrative years. Last year's leader repeated as this year's leader only 3 times in 9 hand-offs. The style that led one year has a habit of trailing the next.
| Year |
Led |
Lagged |
| 2018 | Low Vol | Size |
| 2019 | Momentum | Size |
| 2020 | Momentum | Value |
| 2021 | Value | Momentum |
| 2022 | Value | Size |
| 2023 | Momentum | Low Vol |
| 2024 | Momentum | Low Vol |
| 2025 | Value | Size |
Look at 2020 and 2021. Momentum led, then finished last. Value finished last, then led. Own all five and rebalance instead of guessing and the same decade paid 10.5 pct a year, illustrative, worst year minus 1.6 while single factors fell as far as minus 11. Slightly ahead of the average factor, at two thirds its volatility.