Bespoke has a good post out today examining the results of the MSN StockScouter versus the S&P in 2008. While stocks receiving Stock Scout’s top 10 rating were collectively down in 2008, they still handily beat the S&P’s return for the year by around 3.5% (-3.78% to -7.44%).
Not bad and unfortunately, there is no back tested information on how well MSN’s stock screener/rater has done historically. What’s more — there isn’t even any info on how Stock Scout actually puts its ratings together. Other than an ambiguous statement that the system uses both fundamental and technical qualities of a stock, we have to assume no secret sauce here other than sticking a lot of different paramters into a blender and see what happens. So far, the results have been OK in 2008.
I (and the rest of the investing public) would love to know more. For now, thanks Bespoke.
