One of the dirty secrets of the first half is that while everyone was either panicking as stocks puked and sold at the lows, and then panicking and chasing momentum higher as stocks proceeded to melt up, is that for all the rollercoaster turbulence which saw the S&P suffer the biggest 2-day drop since Black Monday after Trump's Liberation Day only to then see the biggest recovery on record over the next two months, sending the S&P to all time highs, and close the quarter at all time highs, there was one strategy that was rock solid and made gains even when everyone else was crashing and burning.
We are talking, of course, about the Momentum factor, or put simply in the parlance of trading desks, Momentum (or momo).
The chart below shows the indexed YTD performance of the S&P and Nasdaq in all their crash-then-meltup glory, which have returned barely 5% YTD, superimposed with what may be the two most important momentum indexes: the Goldman US Momentum Pair (bbg ticker GSPUMFMO, which represents an equal notional pair trade of going long GSXUMFML, or GS US Momentum Long, and short GSXUMFMS, or GS US Momentum Short) and its supercharged cousin, the Goldman US High Beta Momo Pair (bbg ticker GSPRHIMO, which represents an equal notional pair trade of going long GSXUHMOM, or High Beta Momentum Long and short GSXULMOM, High Beta Momentum Short).
