Layoff-Wave Short
In plain terms
When a public company announces a large layoff, we short it after the announcement and hold for a few weeks.
How it works
Large announced layoffs proxy demand stress, margin pressure, or post-hype cost cutting. The first-pass signal shorts unusually large layoff events after a T+1 lag.
Data dependencies
- Daily prices
Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.
- Layoffs fyi events
Public layoffs.fyi layoff announcements with company-to-ticker resolution.
Expected edge
- Reported return
- untested - internal
- Tested over
- T+1 to T+60d
Untested internal alt-data family; event drift target 50-200 bps over 10-60d.
Example tickers where this is likely to fire
Illustrative only, the signal fires based on the live data, not a fixed list.
Related families
Read each year's 10-K through a finance-specific positive/negative word filter. Companies whose tone got more positive year-over-year tend to outperform after the filing date; those whose tone got more negative tend to lag.
When a company files an 8-K under Item 5.02 (executive departures, but also appointments and pay changes), this strategy bets the stock underperforms over the next 20-90 days. Most 5.02 filings are routine, so the edge is a per-ticker hypothesis tested by our validation gates, not an established research result.
Explore Layoff-Wave Short on alphactor.ai
See which tickers this family is currently firing on, with live signals and rankings.