Systematic equity intelligence for alpha hidden in plain sight
In Plain Sight is a modular probabilistic ranking framework that produces model-ranked lists of securities using publicly available market, financial, and relative-strength data. The framework separates durable structural participation quality from tactical alpha opportunity and special-situation/regime behavior. It is designed for reproducibility, point-in-time integrity, conservative calibration, and testability against simpler baselines
IPS Investment Philosophy
IPS is built on a simple investment philosophy: durable performance comes from separating business quality from market setup. We seek companies with strong structural characteristics—consistent SPY-relative participation, resilient fundamentals, high-quality cash flows, and sound balance sheets—while also respecting tactical conditions such as valuation, relative strength, estimate revisions, and market regime. The goal is not to predict exact prices or chase narratives, but to estimate the probability of how a security may perform relative to SPY over the next 12 months using a disciplined, transparent, and conservative framework. IPS favors repeatable evidence over opinions, applies risk gates before ranking candidates, and clearly distinguishes long-term compounders from shorter-term regime opportunities.
IPS Investment Strategy
In Plain Sight publishes two model-driven leaderboards: Elite Compounders and Regime Alpha. The Elite Compounders list focuses on companies with durable business quality, strong structural scores, consistent SPY-relative participation, and financial characteristics that can support long-term compounding. The Regime Alpha list focuses on stocks that may not always be classic compounders, but are positioned to benefit from a confirmed market regime, cycle, or theme such as AI infrastructure, memory, storage, energy, financials, healthcare recovery, or other tactical opportunities. Our philosophy is to separate great businesses from great setups: some stocks earn a place because they are structurally exceptional, while others earn a place because the current market regime, revisions, relative strength, and industry confirmation create an attractive 12-month SPY-relative opportunity.
IPS leaderboards are published twice per year, in January and July, with quarterly financial-health updates for securities currently included in the model lists. One may choose to hold positions for as long as they remain aligned with their own objectives, or they may swap into any new names suggested during the semiannual updates. When a stock remains on a leaderboard across multiple updates, IPS views that as continued model confirmation; one may consider allocating additional funds to stronger candidates whenever an opportunity presents itself. This allows the original investment to keep compounding while new contributions follow the current model signal, which may produce better long-term results than the simple leaderboard return tables imply. IPS may remove a ticker during a semiannual update if its structural quality deteriorates, relative strength breaks down, valuation becomes excessive, earnings or guidance reset lower, the original regime fades, a stronger candidate replaces it, or the stock no longer offers enough probability of performing relative to SPY over the next 12 months. The goal is not to trade constantly, but to systematically hold strong candidates while replacing names when the evidence changes.
Adding to Positions During Market Pullbacks
One way to improve long-term results is to add selectively to high-conviction IPS candidates during broad market pullbacks. Many of the stocks selected by IPS have historically shown meaningful participation with the S&P 500, which means they can decline when the broader market sells off even if their long-term thesis remains intact. When that happens, a temporary market-driven decline may create an opportunity to add to an existing position at a lower cost basis.
Broad market pullbacks can affect securities included in IPS model lists. IPS may analyze whether a decline appears related to broader market conditions or company-specific deterioration, but this analysis is educational only. IPS does not recommend that readers buy, sell, hold, or add to any position. Any investment decision should be made by the reader after considering their own objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon, tax situation, and consultation with a qualified financial adviser.