Lesson 3 · 15 min
Asset classes & ETF proxies
Equities, bonds, commodities, FX, and crypto — how Quant Buffet represents each in backtests.
ETFsRiskUniverses
An asset class is a category of investments with similar behaviour. Real portfolios mix them for diversification. In Quant Buffet you trade ETF proxies from backtest.universes — liquid, cheap to simulate, and comparable across 800+ library strategies.
Equities
Ownership in companies. Quant Buffet uses liquid ETF proxies (SPY, QQQ, sector XLE/XLK…).
Lab tickers: SPYQQQIWMXLKEFA
Risk note: High growth potential; drawdowns can be sharp.
Why ETFs instead of single stocks?
- Liquidity — SPY trades millions of shares; slippage models are realistic.
- Diversification — one ticker exposes you to hundreds of names.
- Consistency — same data source (Yahoo) for the whole whitelist.
- Teaching focus — you learn the *strategy logic*, not ticker-specific noise.
Named books in code
from backtest.universes import US_SECTORS_FULL, BONDS, MULTI_ASSET
# Example: sector rotation + safety assets (max 15 symbols in lab)
ASSETS = ["XLK", "XLF", "XLE", "XLV", "TLT", "GLD", "BIL"]| Book constant | Typical strategy use |
|---|---|
RISK_ON_OFF | Switch between SPY/QQQ and TLT/GLD/BIL |
US_SECTORS_FULL | Industry momentum & rotation |
GLOBAL_EQUITY | Cross-country equity momentum |
COMMODITIES | Inflation / crisis hedges |
CRYPTO_PROXY | BTC/ETH momentum papers |