Pick stocks with confidence.
Without the FOMO. Without the AI slop.
A system built by a former Goldman Sachs trader, made easy to follow.
US$399 a year · 30-day full refund, no questions asked.
- Ticker Nerd 20
- Avg. stock
- S&P 500
100 invested at the start of 2020 · log scale
Simulated before 20 July 2026, live since. Backtested figures are hypothetical and were not traded.
What you get.
A comprehensive system that is simple to use. It’s built on complex research and rigorous testing, so that what reaches you is clear, with as much of the noise taken out as possible.
- The Ticker Nerd 20
- Twenty stocks, picked by rules, most of them outside the S&P 500. A plain-English brief on each, and an email on every buy and sell. Follow all twenty, or pick the ones that make sense to you.
- The Rank
- Makes sense of any US stock: where it is strong, where it is weak, and how it compares with about 4,600 others. Got a tip, or an idea from AI? Check it here first.
- Themes
- The top picks inside popular themes like AI, judged on hard data.
Run by a former Goldman Sachs trader.

Hi, I’m Aslam. I run Ticker Nerd.
I’ve been in the markets for more than 15 years. Prior to Ticker Nerd I was a systematic trader at Goldman Sachs.
From where I sat, I had the privilege of seeing both sides of a trade. I saw first hand how the big funds trade, and how small investors like you and (now) me trade. More about me
I’m not a marketer or a vibe coder. I’m a systematic investor. I built this system for my own investing. My money is in the Ticker Nerd 20, and I am its main user.
I built it for a problem you’ll probably recognise.
You’ve likely been burnt picking stocks.
Don’t feel bad. Most of us have. It’s usually one (or all) of these:
- You got a hot tip ... that didn’t turn out to be so hot.
- You saw people boast about the one stock that kept going up, so you jumped in ... at the highs.
- You rushed to get a slice of the next AI, space or tech IPO that promised the world ... only to see it go on discount a month later.
I’ve done it too, with my own money. I chased high flyers at the wrong levels, like everyone else. My story
And now there’s AI.
It can comb vast amounts of data, company filings and analyst reports in a few minutes. It can give you an in-depth analysis of a stock, in a style you can understand.
It will even tell you what to buy and sell. Every day I see a new AI investing tool come out.
AI is good. I use it myself.
But your problem was never a lack of data, tools or research.
In a world flooded with news, tweets, posts and AI slop, an edge doesn’t come from more of the same. It comes from knowing what to ignore. In my experience, that’s almost all of it.
Picking stocks in an ad-hoc manner is an easy way to get sucked into the latest fad, at the worst time.
What’s missing is a well defined system. One that tells you why you buy, sell or hold a stock.
That’s what Ticker Nerd is. A well defined system, inside a game you can win.
Let me start with the game.
A game you can win.
Wall Street plays a completely different game from the one you and I play. Even with all my trading experience, I wouldn’t bother competing with the most sophisticated hedge funds. And I don’t need to.
You and I have advantages a big institution doesn’t:
- We can buy smaller companies. The biggest funds are too large to own them in any size that matters.
- Nobody forces us to sell at the bottom. A trading desk has risk limits and stop losses. We don’t.
- We have no position to defend. When the numbers change, we change.
- We don’t have to own the hyped stocks. Not because everyone else does, and not for fear of missing out.
- We can wait. Nobody is judging us on this quarter.
That’s the game. Here is where I play it.
Twenty stocks, outside the S&P 500.
The Ticker Nerd 20 holds companies outside the S&P 500. The largest stocks are the most watched, so they’re the least likely to be mispriced.
These are established US companies, large enough to buy and sell easily.
I’m a fan of the barbell: an S&P 500 index fund on one side, these twenty on the other.
Here’s how 4,600 stocks become twenty.
4,626
US stocks scored on every factor, every trading day
1,500
the most liquid: the pool the model picks from
500
the S&P 500: the big names most people already own
20
held at equal weight: the Ticker Nerd 20
US$399 a year · 30-day full refund, no questions asked.
How the system works.
It’s built on factor investing. I didn’t come up with it. It’s been around longer than I have.
Factors measure the gap between what a company is and what its price already expects. No one factor works all the time, so the system combines them. It isn’t a bet on one kind of market.
- Every day, the model scores about 4,600 US stocks on those factors.
- Every four weeks, the rules review the twenty. Names that fall behind are sold and replaced.
- On every trade, you see what was bought, what was sold, and why.
Those are the mechanics. Here’s what they’re like to live with.
I don’t panic.
Markets take big hits. I know that. It’s part of the game, and I know my system.
I know why I own each company I own. And if something changes with one of them, the rules swap it for a better one.
I know how the model was built, so I trust it. When it gets something wrong, I learn the lesson and I improve it.
Every time I’ve made a decision in a rush, it hasn’t worked out. A system is what stops me making the poorly timed ones.
And I still hear about new companies all the time. A newsletter. An email. A podcast. Now I plug in the ticker and get the full picture: is there a genuine business behind it, or is it just hype?
That’s the confidence I want you to have.
US$399 a year · 30-day full refund, no questions asked.
The biggest recent wins, by name.
So what has the system actually bought? These are the largest gains among trades closed in the last two years. Chances are you haven’t heard of most of them. That’s the point: the crowd is watching other names. The ledger holds 512 closed trades, and every loss is published too.
+256%
May 2023 – Mar 2026 · 2.8 years
vs S&P 500 Equal Weight +52%
+192%
Apr 2024 – Dec 2025 · 1.7 years
vs S&P 500 Equal Weight +16%
+120%
Aug 2023 – May 2025 · 1.8 years
vs S&P 500 Equal Weight +24%
+120%
Dec 2025 – May 2026 · 6 months
vs S&P 500 Equal Weight +10%
Simulated before 20 July 2026, live since. Backtested figures are hypothetical and were not traded.
The record, losses included.
The portfolio has traded with real money, mine included, since 20 July 2026. Everything before that is a backtest, which is why I made the test hard to fool.
+27.4%
S&P 500 Equal Weight +19.2%
+21.9%
S&P 500 Equal Weight +17.6%
+12.2%
S&P 500 Equal Weight +10.0%
−7.7%
S&P 500 Equal Weight −11.6%
- Ticker Nerd 20
- Avg. stock
- S&P 500
Total return by calendar year, % · the latest year to date · as at 12 Nov 2026
US$399 a year · 30-day full refund, no questions asked.
What membership gives you.
- The Ticker Nerd 20, with a plain-English brief on each stock
- An email on every buy and sell, with the reason
- The Rank, to make sense of any US stock
- Themes: the top picks in themes like AI, judged on hard data
- The full record, every trade, losses included
Next review: 7 Dec 2026. Join before then and you see the changes as they happen.
US$399a year
Under US$8 a week
Join Ticker Nerd →- 30-day full refund, no questions asked. Email hello@tickernerd.com.
- Cancel any time under Billing in your account menu. Access runs to the end of the period you paid for.
- Reminder before renewal. We email you before each renewal.
An inside look.
Want to see it before you join? These are the real member screens. The names are blurred, because they’re what you’re paying for.
I built it with all my experience as a trader.
A lot of people are coding up their own stock tools with AI right now. Maybe you’ve tried it. Here is what it takes to build one you’d trust with real money.
- Institutional-grade data.
- More than twenty years of company fundamentals, from the same databases professional managers pay for.
- Point-in-time, to avoid look-ahead bias.
- Companies revise their numbers after the fact. So on any past date, the system sees only what was published by that day. Skip that, and a backtest grades itself with tomorrow’s answer sheet.
- Survivorship bias, accounted for.
- The history includes the companies that later went bust, were taken over or delisted. Test only on the survivors and any system looks good.
- A defined universe.
- The 1,500 largest, most liquid US stocks, rebuilt by rule at every date in the test. Can’t buy it and sell it easily? It isn’t in.
- Factors built from all three financial statements.
- Are the profits real, or only on paper? Do they turn into cash? Is growth paid for by issuing new shares? The income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement each answer a different question. About fifty measurements in all, every one traced to published research.
- No curve fitting.
- One value for each setting, argued from economics before any test ran. Never the best of ten tries.
- Robustness testing.
- Hundreds of runs. Different start dates. Different kinds of market. Shifted weights, and real trading costs on every stock. I judged it on the worst runs, never the average.
- My own money.
- Live since 20 July 2026.
Looking good on paper is not enough. It needs to perform well, live. The full methodology
US$399 a year · 30-day full refund, no questions asked.
Who it’s for.
Ticker Nerd isn’t for everyone.
For you if
- You have real money invested, most of it in an index fund or something like it.
- You want some individual stocks too, and you’ve been picking them one at a time.
- You want to know why you own each one.
Not for you if
- You want the one stock that triples this quarter.
- You’re investing your first $1,000. An index fund is the better start.
- You want someone to tell you what to do with your money. The model publishes what it owns. What you do is your call.
Questions.
Is it for me?
Should I just buy an index fund?
For most people, yes. I own one. This is for the part of your money you want in individual stocks anyway.
Why not just ask AI, or build my own?
Use AI. I do. But give it a system. Our methodology is published in full, so hand it to your AI and ask it to find the holes.
Do I have to buy all twenty?
No. Some members follow all twenty. Others read the briefs and pick the ones that make sense to them. What you do is your call.
How much time does it take?
About an hour every four weeks, when the rules review the twenty. The model does the daily work.
Which markets do you cover?
US stocks only, for now. I plan to add more. If there’s a market you’d like covered first, email me.
I’m not in the US. Can I use it?
Yes. All twenty are US-listed and easy to trade, so you need a broker that offers US shares.
Can I trust it?
How long has it run with real money?
Since 20 July 2026. Everything before that is a backtest, and every chart on this page says which is which.
Does the system always work?
No. The record shows a losing year, and there will be more. Twenty stocks swing harder than an index fund, and there will be stretches when they trail it.
If it works, why sell it?
I run it for my own money either way. The stocks are large enough that members buying the same twenty costs me nothing, and membership pays for the data and the work. There’s a selfish reason too. Building it in public, where I succeed or fail in front of you, makes me a better investor.
Who is behind it?
Me. My name is on it, my money is in it, and my career is on LinkedIn for you to check. Email me and I answer myself.
Is this financial advice?
No. This is general information and educational content only, not financial advice. It's published for every reader alike and doesn't consider anyone's personal circumstances. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Paying
What does it cost?
US$399 a year. One membership, no higher tier, no upsell.
Is there a free trial?
No. There’s a 30-day full refund instead. Join, look around, and if it isn’t for you, one email gets your money back.
How does billing work?
Stripe takes the payment. I email you three weeks before each renewal, and you can cancel any time.
A well defined system, inside a game you can win.
The rules next review the twenty on 7 Dec 2026. Join before then and you see the changes as they happen.
US$399 a year · 30-day full refund, no questions asked.
Not ready to join? See how the system makes sense of AI stocks. Free.
AI is the theme everyone is talking about. Here is the system at work on it.
- A popular theme, mapped: over 100 US companies building AI, on one page.
- The system at work: the model's Top picks and Watchlist in all four parts, each scored on its business and its price.
- Free, as a PDF. Plus the Market Radar on Mondays.
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