Week in Review: Jul 24 - Aug 1, 2026

Watch: Jul 27–31, 2026

A short video deep dive on this topic. Prefer to read? The full post is below.

Performance Snapshot

This week AlphaWizzard returned -1.9%, underperforming both the S&P 500 (+1.1%) and Nasdaq (+0.6%) as concentrated weakness in memory-chip holdings offset an otherwise winning tape. The pain was factor-specific rather than broad: while we lag month-to-date at -12.7%, we remain ahead of SPY year-to-date (+11.9% vs +9.5% for SPY) and, more importantly, since inception (+21.1% vs +9.5% for SPY and +9.4% for QQQ). Our elevated maximum drawdown of -19.1% reflects the aggressive positioning inherent in an accelerating strategy, and it's a figure we monitor closely as the risk overlay does its work.

The F1 Dashboard

AlphaWizzard remains firmly in ACCELERATING mode this week, holding equity exposure steady at 81% — unchanged from the start of the week. In our F1 analogy, the model still sees enough clear track ahead to keep its foot on the accelerator, favoring high equity participation over defensive braking. That conviction cut both ways this week: it kept us fully engaged in a rising market, but it also meant we absorbed the full impact of a sharp semiconductor pullback. No rebalance was triggered during the week, so current positioning reflects the model's most recent systematic read on the risk environment.

Market Radar

Markets ground out a winning week — the S&P 500 finished +1.1%, the Nasdaq +1.6%, and the Dow +1% — but the path was anything but smooth. The dominant driver was the FOMC's July 28–29 meeting, where the committee held rates at 3.5%–3.75% in a notably hawkish 9-3 vote, with three dissenters preferring a hike. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference struck a more dovish tone, opening the door to alternative inflation measures, but stocks still sold off into the decision, with the Dow briefly down more than 840 points. The following day brought Q2 GDP and June PCE, which showed core inflation running a sticky 3.3% year-over-year, while the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.73%, its highest since January 2025.

Big Tech earnings ultimately carried the market higher. Microsoft and Amazon surged nearly 9% and over 8% respectively, with AWS growing 37% to $42.2B — its fastest pace in 18 quarters. But the dispersion was brutal: Alphabet fell around 15% on capex worries, Meta dropped nearly 10% on an EPS miss, and Apple slid roughly 7% on Friday despite a revenue beat, dragged down by soft services numbers. The most relevant theme for us was the memory and semiconductor rotation. Micron was reportedly down 41% from its high and Samsung flagged chip shortages. But the sharpest wave of selling looks to have been forced rather than fundamental. Reports point to a highly leveraged, AI-focused fund run by rising-star manager Aschenberg that faced margin calls from its banks. The fund had piled leverage onto its AI investments, and that forced unwind spilled straight into the memory and AI stocks it held. It pressured the entire memory complex and weighed directly on our positions in MU, SNDK and STX.

Heading into next week, sentiment is cautious but constructive. The August 1 tariff deadline — including 100% tariffs on patented pharmaceuticals taking effect July 31 — and persistent Middle East tensions remain live risks, while rising Treasury yields keep a lid on rate-sensitive names. With the marquee July jobs report landing August 7, the market is positioning carefully around a data-heavy stretch.

Under the Hood

Top Contributors

Laggards

Sector Performance

Here's how the major sectors performed this week and how our stock picks in each sector compared to the sector ETFs:

*Our Return is the weighted average of portfolio holdings in each sector. Impact is each sector's NAV-weighted EOD impact in percentage points (pp). Σ Impact (-2.02pp) sits slightly below the headline NAV (-1.90pp); the 0.12pp difference reflects cash-sleeve carry, dividends in period, and intraday execution by the daily risk overlay (the model uses end-of-day prices, while live trades happen throughout the day).

The story this week is almost entirely a Technology story. Our tech sleeve — our largest allocation at 37.7% of the portfolio — returned -6.5% against a nearly flat XLK (-0.3%), a painful -6.2% of underperformance driven by the memory-chip rout in SNDK, MU and LITE, and it alone dragged -2.5% off the portfolio. The good news is that our other sectors performed admirably: Basic Materials delivered a standout +3.9% versus a -1.6% ETF (a +5.5% beat) on the strength of NUE, and Energy returned +3.6% against a flat XLE (+3.7% outperformance) thanks to DINO. Financial Services, our second-largest weight at 26.9%, added a steady +0.3% and edged out its benchmark, providing valuable ballast. The clear theme was concentration risk: our diversified picks worked well, but the sheer weight of the semiconductor drawdown overwhelmed the gains elsewhere.

Earnings Scorecard

A clean sweep: all four reporting holdings beat on both EPS and revenue, with DINO's $5.31 vs $4.60 and STX's $5.71 vs $5.14 standing out as decisive top-and-bottom-line beats. The fundamentals underneath our picks are clearly performing — NUE, DINO and BEN all translated their beats directly into positive weekly returns and top-contributor status. The disconnect is instructive: STX beat handsomely yet still traded lower alongside the broader memory complex, a reminder that in the current rotation, macro sentiment is temporarily overriding company-specific fundamentals in the chip space.

Pit Stop

Each week we shine a light on a holding that shaped our results. This week's spotlight goes to a financial name that quietly bucked a difficult tape and reminded us of the value of diversification beyond the headline sectors.

BEN - Franklin Resources Inc

Week: +4.2% | MTD: +1.8% | 6M: +25.4%

Franklin Resources — the global asset manager behind the Franklin Templeton brand — was our single best contributor this week at +4.2%, adding +0.2% to the portfolio. The stock got a direct lift from Friday's earnings beat, delivering $0.72 EPS versus $0.68 expected on revenue of $2.4B against a $1.8B consensus. As a financial-services name, BEN benefited from the sector's broad +1.1% advance while rising markets support the asset-based fees that drive its business. With the position now up +2.9% from our average entry and an impressive +25.4% over the trailing six months, BEN exemplifies why our systematic diversification into financials provides ballast when growth and tech names wobble.

Week Ahead

The calendar heats up considerably in the first week of August, with a cluster of portfolio earnings and a high-stakes run of labor-market data that culminates in the July jobs report.

Portfolio Earnings

Three of our holdings are scheduled to report next week:

SNDK's Wednesday after-market report is the one to watch most closely — after this week's -15.4% drawdown amid the memory rotation, its results and guidance could be a pivotal catalyst for how the market re-rates the entire chip complex.

Key Events

Friday's July nonfarm payrolls report is the marquee event, following a July ADP consensus that pointed to just 75,000 private jobs added — a marked slowdown. With the Fed on hold and inflation still sticky, a soft print could reshape rate expectations quickly.

This is precisely the environment where our systematic discipline earns its keep. We won't be trading the headlines; instead, the model will continue to read the aggregate risk signal and adjust exposure accordingly. With three portfolio names reporting and a market-moving jobs report to close the week, we remain in ACCELERATING mode at 81% exposure — engaged, monitoring, and ready to let the process, not emotion, dictate any changes.

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