ATLAS Research
What history says about investing.
We study the long record of markets: which investments won, in which countries and sectors, and why. Every study cites its sources, so anyone can check the numbers.
Published
Studies you can read today.
Most individual stocks lose to Treasury bills
Bessembinder tracked 25,967 US stocks from 1926 to 2016. Only 42.6% beat one-month T-bills over their lifetime.
Read the study →PUBLISHEDHow often active funds beat the index
The SPIVA scorecard has tracked it for 25 years. In 2025, 79% of active large-cap US funds did worse than their index.
Read the study →PUBLISHED66,465 households at a broker
Barber and Odean matched real trading records to returns. The most active traders earned the least.
Read the study →PUBLISHEDHow many stocks make a diversified portfolio
Textbooks say 10 or 20. Later research says 30, 40, even 50. Why the number keeps rising.
Read the study →In preparation
What we are studying next.
These will be published only when the data behind them is complete and checked.
150 years of stocks, country by country
What stocks, bonds and cash returned in each country where data goes back that far, and what happened to investors who stayed through the crashes.
Bitcoin, studied like a stock
Its returns, its crashes and how long it took to recover each time, measured with the same tools ATLAS uses for stocks.
Which sectors won, and why
The winning and losing sectors of each decade, and what they had in common: technology shifts, rates, regulation, energy.
How our own behaviour costs us money
Selling in panic, buying at the top, trading too much: the behavioural biases with the clearest cost, measured in real data.
Want a study for your class or your team? Tell us →
What ATLAS does