JANEWAY
Just A Neutral Engine With Autonomous Yield
- Status
- active
- Version
- v1
- Trades
- 0
Buys newly-spun-off companies a month after they start trading
When a big company spins off a subsidiary into a new public company, the institutional investors who held the parent often have to sell the new shares — they may be too small to hold or outside the fund's mandate. This forced selling depresses the price for weeks, independent of company fundamentals. This signal buys about 30 days after the spinoff, once the forced selling has cleared.
Kill Criteria
Mechanism (Technical)
When a parent company spins off a subsidiary, most institutional holders of the parent receive Spinco shares but cannot hold them for structural reasons: Spinco is below their market-cap minimums, outside their benchmark, or not covered by their mandate. This forced selling depresses the Spinco price in the first weeks, independent of fundamentals. Greenblatt (1997, 'You Can Be a Stock Market Genius') documented this effect; academic work (McConnell & Ovtchinnikov 2004) confirmed it. The edge is in buying Spinco after the forced selling clears and holding through multiple quarters as coverage builds.
Sizing
Recent Trades
No trades logged yet.
Lifecycle Events
- 2026-04-23 19:14:06 UTCRESUMEDtransition: proposed→active
- 2026-04-23 19:14:06 UTCFIREDtransition: none→proposedcontract_path: /Users/joshuagafni/Documents/Janeway/Repositories.nosync/janeway/signals/spinoff.yamlcontract_version: 1
References
- Greenblatt (1997) — 'You Can Be a Stock Market Genius'
- McConnell & Ovtchinnikov (2004) — 'Predictability of Long-Term Spinoff Returns'
- Cusatis, Miles, Woolridge (1993) — 'Restructuring Through Spinoffs'
- SEC EDGAR Form 10 / Form 10-12B