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The best indicator for Health Care (XLV)

We backtested 382 indicators across daily, weekly and hourly charts on real Health Care (XLV) history. Here's what actually worked — risk-adjusted, out-of-sample, with costs.

Signaling FLAT right now — VWAP Bands (Weekly) is out of the market. Signal computed on 2026-09-07, 2 days behind the price data on this page (it is rebuilt on a separate schedule).
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Key levels · as of 2026-09-09

Where Health Care (XLV) stands

166.58
last daily close (2026-09-09)
154.71
200-day simple moving average price 7.7% above
165.98
50-day simple moving average price 0.4% above
132.43–175.68
52-week range

Computed from our own daily OHLCV history, not quoted from a third party. Moving averages use closing prices; "52-week" is the last 252 trading sessions.

Mean Reversion · Weekly

VWAP Bands

On the weekly chart, this is the strongest risk-adjusted edge we found for Health Care (XLV) over ~27.6 years — trailing buy-and-hold by 3.4% CAGR.

4.8%
CAGR
0.62
Sharpe
-20.2%
Max DD
86.4%
Win rate
17.51
Profit factor
-3.4%
vs Buy&Hold
Chart

Health Care (XLV) on the weekly chart

The timeframe our backtest found best for this asset. The chart is live market data; the results above are hypothetical and historical.

Chart by TradingView. Loading it contacts tradingview.com, which may set its own cookies — see our privacy policy.

NOTHING BEAT BUY-AND-HOLD
Full strategy report — every setup ranked out-of-sample, corrected for data-mining, and forward-tracked in public.
Read the verdict
Confluence · Weekly

Best multi-indicator combo

StochasticQQE

Going long only when all 2 agree was the strongest confluence setup we found for Health Care (XLV) — trailing buy-and-hold by 4.1% CAGR, out-of-sample. Fewer, higher-conviction trades than any single indicator.

4.1%
CAGR
0.58
Sharpe
86.2%
Win rate
29
Trades
-4.1%
vs Buy&Hold
Best by timeframe

The winner on each chart

Weekly
VWAP Bands
-3.4% · Sharpe 0.62
Daily
Connors RSI-2
-4.2% · Sharpe 0.45
Full results

Every indicator, ranked

Ranked by Sharpe (risk-adjusted return). Hypothetical, fees included.

#IndicatorTFCAGRSharpeMax DDWinTradesvs B&H
1VWAP Bands Weekly4.8%0.62-20.2%86.4%22-3.4%
2Markov Regime Weekly8.4%0.62-32.1%80.5%410.2%
3Zero-Lag LSMA Weekly5.9%0.61-19.7%57.8%102-2.4%
4Bollinger Mean-Reversion Weekly5.3%0.6-20.2%92.0%25-3.0%
5Keltner Mean-Reversion Weekly4.2%0.6-14.7%93.3%15-4.0%
6Fibonacci Bands Weekly5.3%0.6-20.2%92.0%25-3.0%
7Stochastic Weekly4.6%0.58-19.0%96.0%25-3.6%
8Order-Flow Reversion Weekly4.5%0.57-20.2%94.7%19-3.8%
9EMA 200 Trend Weekly6.7%0.56-26.2%35.0%20-1.6%
10CCI Weekly4.5%0.53-18.7%100.0%25-3.8%
11Stochastic RSI Weekly4.9%0.52-22.8%72.1%43-3.3%
12Stochastic Momentum Index Weekly2.7%0.51-11.5%94.7%19-5.5%
13HMA 9/21 Cross Weekly4.9%0.51-24.6%62.6%91-3.3%
14WMA 200 Trend Weekly5.7%0.5-24.4%64.7%17-2.6%

= held up out-of-sample. Hypothetical, costs included. See methodology.

The leverage question

What it would take to beat buy & hold on Health Care (XLV)

1 of 674 tested setups beat buy-and-hold on Health Care (XLV) outright. Another 213 could get there with leverage they would survive — but 166 would be liquidated by their own drawdown before they caught it.

IndicatorBeats B&H unlevered Leverage neededLeverage survived
Demand Index13.6×4.81×
MA Envelope1.32×5.04×
Williams %R1.65×4.67×
QQE1.69×3.54×
Chande Forecast Osc.2.03×5.52×
Fisher Transform2.05×5.47×

Out-of-sample, costs included. A setup is only listed if the leverage it needs is less than the leverage its own worst drawdown survives — when it isn't, no amount of leverage gets there. Volatility drag isn't modelled, so these are the optimistic case. Every indicator, ranked this way

What this means

For Health Care (XLV), VWAP Bands on the weekly timeframe gave the best balance of return and risk in our test. It still trailed buy-and-hold on raw return — but remember: this is a hypothetical backtest of a standard rule, not a recommendation. Markets change. See the methodology and disclaimer.

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