Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting. Here’s why it matters for your wallet.
The WSJ just reported the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction.
While equities, gold, bitcoin hover near highs, the art market is showing signs of early recovery after one of the longest downturns since the 1990s.
Here’s where it gets interesting→
Each investing environment is unique, but after the dot com crash, contemporary and post-war art grew ~24% a year for a decade, and after 2008, it grew ~11% annually for 12 years.*
Overall, the segment has outpaced the S&P by 15 percent with near-zero correlation from 1995 to 2025.
Now, Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso. Since 2019, investors have deployed $1.25 billion across 500+ artworks.
Masterworks has sold 25 works with net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.
Shares can sell quickly, but my subscribers skip the waitlist:
*Per Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd
Statistics don’t care about opinions.
Day Trading: Momentum Strategy (19% Annual Returns)
Most traders think momentum only works over days or weeks. That’s wrong.
Here’s a simple intraday momentum strategy that trades during the day, exits before the close, and is backed by clear rules and real test results.
Modified Moving Average Strategy
The modified moving average is also called a running or smoothed moving average. It differs from the simple and exponential averages. We backtested it.
Backtest of the Week
Let’s backtest two January effects.
First, we look at the January Effect, which has not worked this millennium: we buy at the close of December and sell at the close of January.
It worked very well since WW2 until the year 2000; since then, it has vanished.
Let’s look at the January Barometer:
The January Barometer is a seasonal trading strategy suggesting that the S&P 500’s performance in January can predict its performance for the rest of the year.
Specifically, if the S&P 500 rises in January, the average gain over the next 11 months is approximately 10.3%.
Conversely, if it declines in January, the subsequent 11 months see an average gain of about 3.3%.
Historically, when January ends positively, the win ratio for the rest of the year is 83%, with average gains of nearly 15% in winning years and losses averaging 8% in losing years.
In contrast, when January is negative, the win ratio drops to 62%, with winning years averaging a 13% increase and losing years averaging a 16% decline.
📊 Equity curve when January is positive:
As of today, the S&P 500 is up for the month.
The DJIA’s 9-Month Win Streak: What History Says Happens Next
Asset Allocation Insights: Gold’s Role in Multi-Decade Performance
"Thousand" Crossings: What Happens to the S&P 500 After a Major Milestone?
Sentiment Metrics Clusters: A 6-12 Month Outlook on S&P 500 Performance
The Hidden Performance Penalty of Stocks with Flashy Upsides
History Says a Positive January Leads to 12% Average Yearly Gains
🧠 Quote of the Week
The most important skill for an investor is not accounting and not finance. It’s psychology.
Howard Marks
Have a great rest of your week!
Oddmund & Håkan
P.S We share deep dives on Trading Strategies and Trading ideaplaybooks daily on X and on YouTube.