Depreciation running out
Property and equipment 85%+ depreciated while depreciation still eats a large share of operating profit.
Depreciation is an accounting charge for assets bought years ago. When those assets are almost fully written off but still working, the charge falls away and reported profit rises without any change in the business — until they need replacing.
$10,000 in this list since 2016
Rebuilt every month from the data public at the time
- Per year
- +9.9%
- All stocks +9.4%, S&P 500 +13.8%
- Worst fall from a peak
- -67%
- All stocks -35%
- Months ahead of all stocks
- 51%
- 120 months tested
- Stocks held, on average
- 5
- 2 months with none (held cash)
- Past 12 months
- -6.0%
- All stocks +4.1%, S&P 500 +12.4%
- Volatility, per year
- 39%
- All stocks 22%
- Sharpe ratio
- 0.38
- All stocks 0.40; return over cash per unit of volatility
- Replaced each month
- 23%
- Share of the list that changes at a rebalance
Live since Oct 19, 2026. Holding the list as published, rebought at each month end: +7.8% against +2.1% for all stocks and +0.7% for the S&P 500, to Oct 30, 2026. Too short a period to read much into.
- Depreciation running out
- All US stocks, equal weight
- S&P 500 (price only)
Year by year
| Portfolio | 2016from Oct 31 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026to Oct 19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This list | +11% | +23% | +11% | +18% | -5% | +46% | +7% | -0% | +9% | -9% | -2% |
| All US stocks | +12% | +19% |
9 stocks on the list today
As of the close on Oct 30, 2026; 0 joined and 0 left since Oct 29, 2026
| # | Company | Share price | 1D | Market cap | Net/gross PP&E | D&A / op. income | Op. margin | Capex/D&A | P/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4.21 | −3.0% | $129M | 11.4% | 1261% | 0.13% | 0.6× | 70.2× | |
| 2 |
More balance-sheet situations ideas
A list produced by rules, not a recommendation. Past results in the backtest don't predict future returns. How the backtests work.