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Macro & Rates Thematic basket

Housing Chain

The mortgage-rate trade expressed through equities: builders, building products, HVAC, tools, and home-improvement retail. The most rate-sensitive real-economy chain in the index.

15 stocks · S&P 500 universeEqual-weighted · monthly rebalance2026-10-16 · close
1 day+0.1%basket return
20 days+2.1%basket return
20 days vs S&P 500+2.0%relative return
Year to date-5.7%basket return

Performance

Follow the theme against the wider market.

Period
-10.6%-6.0%-1.4%+3.2%+7.8%2026-07-232026-10-16
Housing ChainS&P 500

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+0.1%+3.3%+2.1%-5.4%+2.5%-5.7%-12.7%
vs S&P 500+1.2%+5.3%+2.0%-8.8%+2.2%-16.0%-24.4%

Risk statistics

Period · 1y

1y · 2025-10-16 – 2026-10-16 · 252 / 252 sessions

Sharpe ratio-0.38Annualized · 0% risk-free rate
Sortino ratio-0.58Annualized · 0% downside target
Historical volatility26.4%Annualized · daily log returns

Basket total returns · Annualized using 252 trading sessions · 0% risk-free rate and downside target. As of 2026-10-16 · 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 · 15 stocks

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

Why it’s includedAdded
WSMWilliams-SonomaHome furnishings retail — move/remodel spend-0.4%+3.8%+11.9%+42.0%2026-06-11
MASMascoRepair & remodel products+0.4%+6.0%+7.1%+16.4%2026-06-11
SHWPaint: R&R + new build-0.5%+5.0%+4.5%+4.2%2026-06-11
AOSA. O. SmithWater heaters — repair/replace plus new build-0.4%+5.0%+4.0%-10.0%2026-06-11
SWKStanley Black & DeckerTools — DIY and pro housing demand-0.3%+4.4%+3.2%+28.3%2026-06-11
HDHome Depot (The)Home improvement demand barometer+0.5%+6.5%+3.2%-8.1%2026-06-11
ALLEAllegionLocks and access hardware+0.5%+4.0%+2.8%-0.6%2026-06-11
LOWLowe'sSame chain, DIY skew+0.9%+6.1%+2.5%-16.9%2026-06-11
CARRCarrier GlobalResidential HVAC and heat pumps+0.1%-1.0%+2.1%+5.3%2026-06-11
LENLennarScale builder #2-0.8%+0.5%+1.5%-23.3%2026-06-11
DHID. R. HortonLargest builder, entry-level skew-0.1%+3.3%+1.0%-2.4%2026-06-11
LIILennox InternationalResidential HVAC replacement cycle-0.2%+0.4%-0.0%-25.7%2026-06-11
PHMPulteGroupMove-up segment exposure+0.5%+1.3%-3.2%-2.5%2026-06-11
NVRNVR, Inc.Land-light builder model-0.4%+0.3%-3.8%-18.8%2026-06-11
BLDRBuilder supply chain+1.8%+3.4%-6.0%-46.9%2026-06-11

No longer in the selected universe; awaiting membership review: BLDR.

Partial price histories: CARR from 2020-03-19.

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 S&P 500” compares the basket’s compounded growth with the benchmark’s. Green means positive; red means negative.

Cross-checked against XHB. Daily return correlation: 0.98 across 1707 sessions. the same builder/products/retail mix, modified equal weight, mid-cap inclusive

Membership history & changes

Membership history

  • drop

    POOL left the S&P 500 (caught by the pipeline's constituent check); it remains an FW 3000 constituent and moves to a broad entry, per the ZION/MOH/MHK pattern. The FW 3000 version is unchanged.

  • expand

    FW 3000 pass: added TOL, KBH, MTH, TMHC, IBP, TREX, SSD, WMS, FND, MHK — 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.

  • expand

    Widening pass: added the HVAC leg (LII, CARR), water heaters (AOS), hardware (ALLE), tools (SWK), and furnishings retail (WSM). Reference pinned to XHB. 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).

  • drop

    MHK removed — no longer in the S&P 500 universe (flagged by the widening pass’s constituent check).

  • create

    Initial composition: builders, products, retail.

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