Ruth Calloway

Ruth Calloway

“The Forensic Accountant” · Quality (Piotroski F-score) · Toronto

“The numbers tell on a company before the price does. I read the statements line by line and back the financially strongest.”

She reads the statements line by line, and backs the strongest.

Scores every company on a nine-point financial-health checklist and owns the strongest.

RiskQuality (Piotroski F-score)Quarterly20 large-cap stocksvs S&P 500

The approach

An accountant’s eye turned to investing — trained to trust audited statements over a compelling story.

Ruth ignores the narrative and reads the accounts. She scores each company against a nine-point checklist of financial health — is it profitable, is it generating real cash, is its debt falling, are its margins widening — and owns the names that pass the most tests. It’s a quality screen built on hard, audited numbers, designed to back the financially strongest companies and quietly avoid the ones whose stories have outrun their statements.

Strengths

  • Reads audited numbers, not narratives
  • A disciplined definition of quality
  • Avoids financially fragile names
  • Nine independent health checks

Worth knowing

A pure quality screen can lag when the market rewards speculative, unprofitable names in a risk-on rally. Ruth is built for soundness, which shows its worth most clearly when the tide goes back out.

Built on

Piotroski, value investing and financial statement information

The nine pass/fail tests of profitability, leverage and efficiency she scores.

Graham & Dodd, Security Analysis

The older discipline behind it: the evidence is in the statements, not the story.

Sloan's accruals anomaly

Why cash flow beating earnings is one of her nine checks — accruals-heavy profits reverse.

The literature

Piotroski, “Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information”, J. Accounting Research (2000)

The F-score she runs, unmodified.

Sloan, “Do Stock Prices Fully Reflect Information in Accruals and Cash Flows?”, The Accounting Review (1996)

The basis for the cash-flow-versus-earnings test inside the score.

Graham & Dodd, Security Analysis (1934)

The tradition of judging a business by its statements.

Risk level 3 of 5

Moderate. Backs the financially strongest companies by a nine-point accounting-strength score. Quality-focused and defensive relative to the market, but fully invested in equities.

No backtest exists for this manager (see the honesty panel below), so there is no historical drawdown figure — the live record below builds it one honest day at a time.

Form guide

Steady

Trades roughly monthly.

0 trading days in the last 304 in the last 90

Counted from the manager’s own decision log. Activity is temperament, not skill — a patient manager isn’t worse than a busy one.

In the book right now: NEM · PYPL · INTU · PTC · NDAQ +15 more — a few examples, without weights; every change they make is logged in plain English below.

Decision scorecard

Graded calls
41
Good calls
66%
Avg edge vs S&P 500
+1.8%

Every buy and sell is graded once, 14 days later, against S&P 500 over the same window — a buy scores well if it beat the benchmark, a sell if the symbol then trailed it. 30 buys, 11 sells graded so far.

Grades measure decisions; they never change the rules. Rule changes only happen through the published spec process — see the transparency page.

Hire Ruth to run part of your own brokerage account — $9.99 a month, cancel any time. Every order they propose waits for your approval; the deepest historical loss of this method is shown above before you commit anything.

Hire Ruth →
✓ VerifiedRules published in full·live‑only record, logged from day one·audited Jul 2026How we stay honest →

Backtest honesty

  • Live-only track record

    Track record begins 12.06.2026 — the Piotroski F-score compares two consecutive years of accounts, but free fundamentals data only spans ~4 recent years, so a multi-year backtest's early period has too little history to be honest. Like Jack, it ships with a live record rather than a thin backtest.

  • Same code, both records

    Backtests and live trading run the same strategy code — there is no separate marketing backtest. Past performance does not predict future results.

Interview Ruth

Ask about their approach, their recent decisions, what could go wrong — anything. They answer in plain language; the exact rules stay in the engine.

How Ruth invests

A plain-English summary of the approach. Every decision this manager makes is logged below in the same plain language, so you can always see exactly what happened and why.

Backs the financially healthiest companies, judged on a nine-point checklist of profitability, debt and the quality of their accounts. Re-checked each quarter.

Track record

No backtest — this manager runs live-only (see the honesty panel above).

Live paper-trading record

Live since 12.06.2026: a US$10,000 allocation would now be US$10,277 — up US$277 (+2.8%) over 59 trading days.

Marked at the last completed close, 04.09.2026 · NAV 102.77.

941011092026-06-122026-09-04
This managerS&P 500
Both lines start at 100 on the same day. Shaded = each line's deepest fall (peak-to-trough): this manager -4.6% · S&P 500 -3.4% — note the two happen at different times.

Crisis stress test

No 2008 or 2020 stress test for Ruth— and that's deliberate.

Ruth scores point-in-time financial statements (the Piotroski quality checks) — history we can’t replay survivorship-free that far back.

We only publish a crisis chart when we can reproduce it honestly — we won't fake one. The managers whose instruments existed back then show their full 2008 & 2020 panels.

Decision log

Every action — and every deliberate non-action — in plain language, straight from the engine. Days the market was shut are listed separately, so they never bury a trade.

Running· last traded 1 Jul 2026· reassesses quarterly, next at the end of SeptemberA gap between trades is the strategy, not a fault — this manager only changes what it holds on its own schedule. Your own account is checked against it every night.
  1. pause

    Engine paused before trading: SPY: missing or non-positive prices in series — no orders were placed; the admin has been flagged.

  2. pause

    Engine paused before trading: SPY: missing or non-positive prices in series — no orders were placed; the admin has been flagged.

  3. buyNDAQ✓ +14.4% after 2wks

    NDAQ scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +5.8%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  4. sellAAPL✗ +11.8% after 2wks

    AAPL scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +31.2%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  5. sellAOS✓ -3.3% after 2wks

    AOS scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +17.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  6. sellAPP✓ -15.0% after 2wks

    APP scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +45.9%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  7. sellKLAC✓ -21.3% after 2wks

    KLAC scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +25.3%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  8. sellLRCX✓ -16.9% after 2wks

    LRCX scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +25.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  9. sellMA✗ +3.6% after 2wks

    MA scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +27.6%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  10. sellPYPL✗ +26.5% after 2wks

    PYPL scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +6.5%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  11. sellRMD✓ +0.9% after 2wks

    RMD fell out of the top 20 by F-score this quarter — sold.

  12. sellSTE✓ -0.3% after 2wks

    STE scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +7.3%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  13. sellTT✓ -0.9% after 2wks

    TT scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +13.6%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  14. sellVMC✓ -0.9% after 2wks

    VMC scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +6.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  15. buyCASY✓ +1.8% after 2wks

    CASY scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +8.0%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  16. buyCTAS✓ +12.0% after 2wks

    CTAS scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +18.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  17. buyDPZ✓ +3.5% after 2wks

    DPZ scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +35.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  18. buyIDXX✓ +4.3% after 2wks

    IDXX scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +31.6%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  19. buyINTU✓ +3.4% after 2wks

    INTU scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +10.5%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  20. buyMSCI✓ +10.1% after 2wks

    MSCI scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +21.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  21. buyNEM✓ +3.0% after 2wks

    NEM scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +12.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  22. buyPTC✓ +7.4% after 2wks

    PTC scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +11.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  23. buyVRSN✓ +5.6% after 2wks

    VRSN scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +62.3%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  24. rebalance

    Quarterly Piotroski screen: scored 503 S&P 500 names on the nine-point F-score; holding the 20 strongest, equal-weight.

  25. buyKLAC✓ +4.8% after 2wks

    KLAC scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +25.3%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  26. buyTT✓ +2.5% after 2wks

    TT scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +13.6%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  27. buyNEM✗ -11.8% after 2wks

    NEM scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +12.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  28. buyPTC✗ -2.2% after 2wks

    PTC scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +11.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  29. buyINTU✗ -4.6% after 2wks

    INTU scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +10.5%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  30. buySTE✓ +1.8% after 2wks

    STE scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +7.3%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  31. buyPYPL✓ +4.7% after 2wks

    PYPL scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +6.5%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  32. buyVMC✓ +3.8% after 2wks

    VMC scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +6.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  33. buyNDAQ✗ -14.5% after 2wks

    NDAQ scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +5.8%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  34. buyVRSN✗ -10.1% after 2wks

    VRSN scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +62.3%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  35. buyDPZ✗ -8.5% after 2wks

    DPZ scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +35.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  36. buyIDXX✗ -5.3% after 2wks

    IDXX scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +31.6%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  37. buyAAPL✗ -4.3% after 2wks

    AAPL scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +31.2%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  38. buyLRCX✓ +6.4% after 2wks

    LRCX scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +25.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  39. buyMSCI✗ -7.1% after 2wks

    MSCI scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +21.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  40. buyCTAS✗ -3.2% after 2wks

    CTAS scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +18.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  41. buyAOS✓ +2.6% after 2wks

    AOS scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +17.4%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  42. buyRMD✓ +1.3% after 2wks

    RMD scores 8/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +17.1%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  43. buyAPP✗ -2.0% after 2wks

    APP scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +45.9%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  44. buyMA✓ +3.6% after 2wks

    MA scores 9/9 on the Piotroski strength test (ROA +27.6%) — among the financially strongest, held equal-weight.

  45. rebalance

    Inception: Quarterly Piotroski screen: scored 503 S&P 500 names on the nine-point F-score; holding the 20 strongest, equal-weight.

Your money stays in your own brokerage account — Alfred never holds it, and every order requires your explicit approval. Nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation. Past performance does not predict future results.Allocations on Alfred use virtual US dollars at the manager's daily NAV.

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