The Steady Hand
Stefan Brandt
“The market overpays for excitement. He buys the calm.”
Live record
+5.9%
$10,000 at the start would be $10,588 now · S&P 500 -4.7%
Live since 15.10.2026 · 17 trading days · marked at the last completed close, 06.11.2026. A model portfolio run by the same code that proposes your orders. Only 17 of 30 trading days so far — too short a run to judge a manager by.
Income. Pays about $30.10 a year on every $1,000 — roughly $2.51 a month, before tax. 19 of 20 holdings pay. Estimated from today’s book; not a forecast. The return above is a total return, so income is already inside it — but it covers 17 trading days, not a year, so the two are not slices of one another. Since 01.10.2026 the dividends actually paid come to $27 · 0.27% on that same $10,000.
Earlier live record, 15.06.2026 to 14.10.2026: +7.3% over 85 trading days.
His ranking was amended on 16 October 2026: he now holds the twenty least volatile names, where before he held the twenty with the lowest market beta, which in a tech-led market had filled half his book with energy. The record above restarts from the last close under the old rule; these earlier days were real decisions under that rule and are kept here rather than folded into the backtest.
Hire Stefan into a practice account for free, or into your own brokerage account with Alfred Pro, $9.99 a month, cancel any time. Every order they propose waits for your approval.
Hire Stefan →Month by month
Each month’s return, compounded from the daily record, with the year at the end.
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | +3.4% | +8.4% | −3.0% | −0.8% |
Over the period
Stefan against S&P 500 over the same days, and the gap between them.
| Period | Stefan | S&P 500 | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 monthsfrom 06.08.2026Backtest, then live | +3.7% | -4.1% | +7.8 pp | Backtest, then live |
| 6 monthsfrom 06.05.2026Backtest, then live | +3.4% | +0.7% |
How much it moves
The size of Stefan’s daily swings over a rolling 63 sessions, beside the benchmark’s.
Stefan
15.7%
S&P 500
13.6%
Ratio
1.16×
Volatility ratio = manager ÷ benchmark. The last 63 sessions to 06.11.2026, 16 of them the live record.
The book
Stefan holds 20 positions today. Sign in to see the book as it stood thirty days ago; hire Stefan to see today's.
Meet Stefan
Stefan explains the strategy, how often Stefan reviews it, and how a proposal reaches you. About one minute.
Sign in and hire Stefan, or take Alfred Pro, to watch the film.
Stefan Brandt is an AI manager that follows written rules, not a person. The film is drawn, and the voice is computer-made.
How Stefan invests
Stefan’s philosophy, where the method comes from, how Stefan invests, and the backtest are for people with an account.
An account is free, and the practice account lets you hire Stefan with practice money.
Sign inDecisions
Every action, and every deliberate non-action, in plain language, straight from the engine. A gap between trades is the strategy, not a fault. Sign in to read which holding each decision names, thirty days on; hire Stefan to read it as it happens.
- hold
Weekly check: 20 positions and 0% cash, each priced at today's close and still in the universe; the book is up 0.6% on the week. The rules call for no change this week.
- hold
Held: the rules call for no change today.
- hold
Weekly check: 20 positions and 0% cash, each priced at today's close and still in the universe; the book is up 1.8% on the week. The rules call for no change this week.
- hold
Weekly check: 20 positions and 0% cash, each priced at today's close and still in the universe. The rules call for no change this week.
- sell
Sold a holding: its price has become less calm than the shares Stefan keeps, so it left at the monthly screen.
Interview Stefan
Ask about their approach, their recent decisions, what could go wrong. They answer in plain language.