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AI & Technology Thematic basket

AI Displacement Risk

S&P 500 business models on the wrong side of AI: seat-based IT services and outsourcing, ad agencies, and data/research vendors whose products LLMs increasingly substitute. A monitoring basket (potential underperformers / hedge candidates), not a buy list. Small by design — most pure displacement stories live outside the index.

12 stocks · FW 3000 universeEqual-weighted · monthly rebalance2026-10-21 · close
1 day+1.9%basket return
20 days+11.6%basket return
20 days vs FW 3000+11.0%relative return
Year to date+12.1%basket return

Performance

Follow the theme against the wider market.

Period
-3.4%+2.4%+8.3%+14.1%+19.9%2026-07-282026-10-21
AI Displacement RiskFW 3000

Series before each basket's creation date are a backtest of the membership as of creation; live tracking starts at creation.

Return1 day5 days20 days60 daysMTDYTD1 year
Basket+1.9%+8.0%+11.6%+18.0%+16.1%+12.1%+17.1%
vs FW 3000+1.2%+7.2%+11.0%+13.6%+14.5%-1.1%+2.1%

Risk statistics

Period · 1y

1y · 2025-10-21 – 2026-10-21 · 252 / 252 sessions

Sharpe ratio0.61Annualized · 0% risk-free rate
Sortino ratio0.89Annualized · 0% downside target
Historical volatility36.7%Annualized · daily log returns

Basket total returns · Annualized using 252 trading sessions · 0% risk-free rate and downside target. As of 2026-10-21 · close.

How these statistics are calculated

Risk methodology

Sharpe: average daily simple return divided by its sample standard deviation, multiplied by √252. The risk-free rate is assumed to be 0%; this is not a cash-adjusted ratio.

Sortino: average daily simple return divided by downside deviation, multiplied by √252. Downside deviation is the square root of the average squared shortfall below 0%, counting all sessions, including zeros for gains.

Historical volatility: √(252 × average squared daily log return), matching the Vol page’s realized-volatility convention. This differs from the sample standard deviation used in Sharpe.

Each period requires complete history and at least 5 sessions. MTD and YTD follow the calendar; 1y is 252 sessions. Missing data or an undefined ratio displays — with a reason. Short periods can produce unstable ratios; intraday snapshots include a partial session. History before this basket’s creation is backtested. If a new basket has no stored daily return series yet, estimates from its rounded published chart levels are marked ≈.

Full basket risk methodology →

Inside the basket · 12 stocks

Current members and the reasoning behind each inclusion. Returns are for individual holdings.

Why it’s includedAdded
DXCDXC Technology CompanyLegacy IT services and outsourcing+5.3%+20.4%+41.5%+5.1%2026-06-11
ACNAccentureConsulting both wins AI projects and cannibalizes seats — the contested case+0.5%+11.8%+32.0%-7.3%2026-06-11
ITGartner, Inc.Gartner: subscription research/advisory whose deliverables LLMs increasingly draft-0.0%+12.2%+23.0%-13.0%2026-06-11
EPAMEPAM Systems, Inc.IT services displacement — its own S&P 500 exit is the thesis playing out+2.5%+16.9%+21.8%-34.6%2026-06-11
CTSHCognizant Technology Solutions CorporationIT outsourcing: AI deflation of billable hours+2.0%+11.3%+17.6%-14.7%2026-06-11
FDSFactSet Research Systems Inc.Financial data/research workflows exposed to LLM substitution+2.4%+10.4%+14.5%+11.8%2026-06-11
CDWCDW CorporationIT reseller/VAR: hardware-attach and services intermediation squeezed as spend shifts to hyperscalers+2.1%+5.4%+8.3%+18.0%2026-06-11
OMCOmnicom Group Inc.Creative ad production deflated by generative tools-0.7%+2.7%+6.6%+2.8%2026-06-11
STGWStagwell Inc.Ad agency network — creative volume deflation-0.2%+1.6%+5.2%+82.4%2026-06-11
CNXCConcentrix CorporationCustomer-experience outsourcing — seat-based BPO+2.9%+13.0%-0.3%-24.7%2026-06-11
RHIRobert Half Inc.White-collar staffing — hiring displaced by AI+2.3%-1.0%-7.3%+35.5%2026-06-11
MANManpowerGroup Inc.Staffing — entry-level placement exposure+3.9%-14.1%-22.2%+53.7%2026-06-11

Partial price histories: CNXC from 2020-11-24.

How this basket is built

Equal-weighted; monthly rebalance, buy-and-hold between rebalances; dated membership changes reset the target weights.

Tracked since 2026-06-11. Membership decisions are documented below.

Read the methodology →

Reading the returns

Basket returns include dividends. “vs FW 3000” compares the basket’s compounded growth with the benchmark’s. Green means positive; red means negative.

Membership history & changes

Membership history

  • expand

    EPAM re-enters as a broad-universe member: dropped from the S&P 500 basket when it left the index, but it remains an FW 3000 constituent and the purest displacement case in the theme. Effective-dated to creation like the other broad members.

  • expand

    FW 3000 pass: added CNXC, DXC, RHI, MAN, STGW — names outside the S&P 500 but inside our broad universe; they count only in the FW 3000 version of this basket. Effective-dated to creation so the broad backtest covers the full set. The S&P 500 basket is unchanged.

  • drop

    EPAM removed — dropped from the S&P 500 (caught by the constituent check on its first production run). An index exit by a displacement candidate is the thesis playing out, but basket rules require current constituents.

  • expand

    Widening pass: added IT and CDW. The S&P 500 holds few pure displacement candidates (staffing, ad-tech and outsourcing pure plays sit outside the index), so this basket stays deliberately small. No clean inverse-theme ETF exists to pin as a reference. New members are effective-dated to basket creation so the backtest and the reference correlation cover the widened set (the basket was one day old, with no meaningful live history to restate).

  • create

    Initial composition: 5 names. IPG excluded (Omnicom merger), MTCH excluded (index membership uncertain).

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