Mean reversion: 24 Backtests
We backtested 24 mean reversion strategies across crypto, ETFs, US stocks. 0 beat buy-and-hold before correction; best −4.7 pts/yr.
Every result below is the strategy's annualized return minus buy-and-hold on the same assets and days, charged real trading costs and scored only on data up to the discovery cutoff. See the full family index, the full method and every result, or download the raw registry (JSON).
0 of these 24 strategies were significant at p < 0.05 before any correction for multiple testing, and 0 of 24 beat buy-and-hold on the raw excess-return number across crypto, ETFs, US stocks. Across the whole registry we ran 260 tests and applied one Benjamini-Hochberg correction; only 0 of those survived it, which is why a single significant p-value inside one family isn't treated as a working edge here — the correction is explained in full on the evidence page. This family was last re-scored on 2026-09-18, using only data up to the 2025-03-15 discovery cutoff — the same freeze point every family in the registry is held to, so none of them can see data the others couldn't. Mean reversion is tested across 3 asset classes (crypto, ETFs, US stocks); a strategy only joins this family because of the signal it trades on, not the asset it's tested against.
- Internal Bar Strength (IBS) daily reversion, single asset (ETFs): −4.7 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Connors & Alvarez 'Short Term Trading Strategies That Work'; Quantpedia IBS writeup.
- Overnight gap fade on equity index ETF (QQQ/DIA proxy) (ETFs): −9.9 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Connors gap-trading research; Quantpedia 'Overnight Gap Reversal'.
- Internal Bar Strength (IBS) daily reversion, single asset (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −10.5 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Connors & Alvarez 'Short Term Trading Strategies That Work'; Quantpedia IBS writeup.
- Bollinger mean-reversion gated by HMM regime (combined ML overlay) (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −12.4 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Ang & Bekaert (2002) Review of Financial Studies; Bollinger Bands (John Bollinger).
- Overnight gap fade on equity index ETF (QQQ/DIA proxy) (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −12.5 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Connors gap-trading research; Quantpedia 'Overnight Gap Reversal'.
- Connors TPS (Time-Price-Sequence) triple pullback (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −13.0 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Larry Connors TPS strategy.
- Connors RSI(2) pullback on BTC daily (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −13.2 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Connors & Alvarez 2008, Short Term Trading Strategies That Work.
- Cross-sectional reversal, crypto universe, weekly (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −14.1 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Liu & Tsyvinski 2021 JF 'Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency' (extrapolated to reversal).
- Connors TPS (Time-Price-Sequence) triple pullback (US stocks): −15.5 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Larry Connors TPS strategy.
- Williams %R overbought/oversold reversal (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −18.1 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: r/Daytrading and TikTok Williams %R strategy posts.
- Raschke 80-20 (Wilder) reversal (US stocks): −18.3 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Linda Raschke / Wilder 80-20 rule.
- Raschke 80-20 (Wilder) reversal (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −18.3 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Linda Raschke / Wilder 80-20 rule.
- CCI(20) extreme reversal (±200) (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −19.2 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: YouTube 'CCI indicator secret strategy' videos.
- Earnings-day realized-volatility mean reversion (keyless proxy) (wide US stocks) (US stocks): −21.3 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: De Bondt & Thaler (1985) Journal of Finance.
- Earnings-day realized-volatility mean reversion (keyless proxy) (US stocks): −21.6 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: De Bondt & Thaler (1985) Journal of Finance.
- Connors RSI(2) pullback on BTC daily (crypto): −43.2 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Connors & Alvarez 2008, Short Term Trading Strategies That Work.
- Bullish/bearish engulfing candle reversal (crypto): −57.9 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: r/Daytrading candlestick threads, TradingView engulfing-pattern scripts.
- Bollinger mean-reversion gated by HMM regime (combined ML overlay) (crypto): −61.9 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Ang & Bekaert (2002) Review of Financial Studies; Bollinger Bands (John Bollinger).
- Liquidation cascade mean-reversion (crypto): −89.1 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: CryptoQuant/Glassnode liquidation research notes.
- CCI(20) extreme reversal (±200) (crypto): −98.8 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: YouTube 'CCI indicator secret strategy' videos.
- Cross-sectional reversal, crypto universe, weekly (crypto): −104.1 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: Liu & Tsyvinski 2021 JF 'Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency' (extrapolated to reversal).
- Williams %R overbought/oversold reversal (crypto): −107.9 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: r/Daytrading and TikTok Williams %R strategy posts.
- VWAP mean-reversion bounce (intraday) (crypto): −134.5 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: YouTube/TikTok day-trading content.
- Classic daily pivot point support/resistance bounce (crypto): −160.1 pts/yr, behind buy-and-hold, p=1.000. Source: r/Daytrading pivot point threads, YouTube 'pivot point strategy' videos.
Related families: Momentum, Seasonality, Equity factors.