Buying the NIFTY 500’s 20 biggest losers of the past year and holding them for a year lost money: about −1% a year over 12½ years, against about +13% for the index, with an 80% fall along the way. Last year’s losers mostly kept losing.
Holding the NIFTY 500’s 30 least volatile stocks, rebalanced quarterly, passed all eight of our checks: about 15% a year after costs against about 13% for the index, with a −26% worst drawdown against the index’s −38%. The return edge came mostly before 2020.
Holding the NIFTY 500’s 15 strongest stocks, and selling only when they drop out of the top 30, passed all eight of our checks: CAGR of about 22% after costs, against about 13% for the index. The catch is a −49% drawdown, deeper than the index’s.
Testing a stock strategy on today's index members quietly deletes every company that failed along the way, and lets you buy smaller companies that only later grew big enough to join the index. The results look far better than anything you could have traded.