In August, gold mines were the market's top performers. In September, they were the most expensive. Fresnillo
$FRES (+2,67 %) down 15 percent, Micron
$MU (-5,27 %) up 17. At the end of the month, the Wikifolio was up 1.03 percent, and one day later, I swapped out 18 of 30 positions.

September was all about interest rates and oil. Brent rose above $100 in the second week and, following a Saudi pipeline outage, briefly hit $110. U.S. inflation stood at 3.4 percent in August. On September 16, the Fed raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 3.75 to 4.00 percent, for the first time since July 2023. The 10-year U.S. yield subsequently climbed to 5.19 percent, a level last seen in 2007. This hardly bothered tech stocks. The Nasdaq hit a record high on September 21, and AMD has been worth one trillion dollars ever since. The situation was different in Europe. German inflation jumped to 3.3 percent, and the DAX lost about four percent over the month.

📊 Monthly performance: +1.03%

📊 Price as of September 30: €117.97

📊 Largest loss since inception: −14.6%

📊 Max performance: +18% (since March 13, 26)

Next rebalancing: Early January 2027

Performance & Comparison 🚀

The U.S. indices posted clear gains when calculated in euros, with the Nasdaq leading the way. The Wikifolio did not keep pace. It lagged behind the Nasdaq, S&P 500, and FTSE All-World, and outperformed only the DAX.

Performance Comparison (September 1–30, 2026, end of day):

Global Quant 6-Factor: +1.03%

NASDAQ 100: +4.18%

S&P 500: +2.90%

FTSE All-World: +1.95%

DAX: −4.07%

You can see what caused this in the two lists below. Tech stocks delivered, while mining stocks and a few individual stocks ate up a good chunk of those gains.

Purchases & Sales 💶

None in September itself. The model trades only on four dates per year, and the third was on October 1. What happened then is detailed in its own section below.

Top Movers in September 🟢

The month belonged to semiconductors and memory stocks. Midway through the month, Intel’s CEO said the company could currently only meet about half of the demand for processors. After that, the entire industry picked up steam. Micron
$MU (-5,27 %) topped the list with +16.91%, followed by SanDisk
$SNDK (-5,71 %) at +13.90% and TSMC
$2330 at +11.85%. Lam Research
$LRCX (-4,43 %) rose +11.12%, ASML
$ASML (-1,11 %) +10.06%. In between is Comfort Systems $FIX (-3,63 %) , a stock that has nothing to do with chips, up 10.47%. In August, Comfort Systems was still among the losers.

September’s Big Losers 🔴

Gold and silver declined in September, with silver falling much more sharply. Rising yields and a stronger dollar weighed on prices. Mining stocks followed suit. Fresnillo
$FRES (+2,67 %) lost −14.53%, Coeur Mining
$CDE (+0,59 %) −10.65%, and Endeavour Mining $EDV (+2,24 %) -7.50%. In August, all three were still on the other list with gains of over 25 percent. Merlin Properties fell −8.98%, Airtel Africa
$AAF (+0 %) down 7.76%, and Interactive Brokers
$IBKR (-2,96 %) fell by 6.79%.

Rebalancing on October 1 🔄

On October 1, the third rebalancing since the start took place. I swapped out 18 of 30 positions—more than ever before. In July, it was nine.

All nine banks are out: Bankinter
$BKT (-0,67 %) , CaixaBank
$CABK (-0,52 %) , BBVA
$BBVA (-0,65 %) , UniCredit
$UCG (-0,09 %) , BPER
$BPE (-0,72 %) , Monte dei Paschi $BMPS (-0,16 %) , Banca Mediolanum
$BMED (-0,65 %) , Swedbank$SWED A (+0,03 %) and HSBC
$HSBA (+0,08 %) . In addition, Interactive Brokers $IBKR (-2,96 %) , Antofagasta $ANTO (-1,75 %) , Coeur Mining
$CDE (+0,59 %) , AppLovin
$APP (-4,57 %) , Airtel Africa
$AAF (+0 %) , Merlin Properties and Solaria
$SLR (+2,8 %) . Investor AB
$INVE B (+0,95 %) and Pershing Square
$PSH (-0,45 %) are also no longer in the portfolio. So four of the six underperformers listed above are no longer in the portfolio.

Six stocks from the healthcare sector were added: Eli Lilly
$LLY (+0,49 %) , Bristol-Myers
Squibb
$BMY (-1,22 %) , Vertex $VRTX , Incyte
$INCY (+0,5 %) , Illumina
$ILMN (-2,17 %) and WuXi AppTec
$603259 . Five are from the semiconductor and storage sectors: Seagate
$STX (-6,28 %) , Marvell
$MRVL (-5,33 %) , Applied
Materials
$AMAT (-4,64 %), Teradyne
$TER (-5,27 %) and KLA
$KLAC (-3,72 %) . The rest is split among Fortinet
$FTNT (-7,17 %) , CF Industries
$CF (+0,49 %) , Marathon Petroleum
$MPC (+0,76 %) , APA
$APA (+3,88 %) , Pop Mart $9992 (-1,22 %) , Hong Kong Exchanges
$388 (-0,26 %) and Lion Finance
$BGEO (-2,36 %) .

Twelve remain: SanDisk, Micron, Western Digital, Nvidia, Lam Research, TSMC, ASML, Alphabet, Comfort Systems, Fresnillo, Endeavour and Newmont. All six of September’s top movers are included.

Two names stand out. Applied Materials and KLA I sold on July 1, up 92 and a gain of 90 percent. Now both are back in my portfolio. The model doesn’t remember what it has sold in the past. It only looks at where a stock stands in the ranking today.

Conclusion 💡

The portfolio looks different after October 1 than it did before. In September, about 41 percent was still in financial stocks; now there are two positions out of 30. Instead, 12 out of 30 are in semiconductors and memory, and six are in the healthcare sector. There’s no sector limit; the model sorts by score, not by industry. Trading won’t resume until early January.

How was your September? And did you hold onto your stocks after the pullback, or did you sell them? 👇

➡️ Every month, you’ll find the complete Wikifolio update here, along with research in between.

📈 Wikifolio $DE000LS9V052 (-2,4 %)

🚀 Month 9 since the start has also gone really well again. 🚀

So far this year, things really only went downhill from mid-June to the end of July, but over the last two months, the upward trend has continued. And yes, the 30k mark has been broken once again 😍

According to the algorithm, I was on track with Lumentum ($LITE (-5,53 %) ), Kioxia ($285A (-7,64 %) ), Micron ($MU (-5,27 %) ), Hewlett Packard Enterprise ($HPE (-5,68 %)), Recruit Holdings ($6098) (-2,87 %) and Dell ($DELL (-4,44 %) ). In addition, outside the algorithm, we are invested in SanDisk ($SNDK (-5,71 %) ).

The starting value was around 26,300 euros. Due to capital gains tax on the sale of Western Digital ($WDC (-6,56 %) ), 650 euros were lost; however, a capital inflow of 720 euros largely offset the tax.

All in all, September delivered a gain of almost exactly +15% for the satellite portfolio.

+4,000 euros in capital gains 🚀

Who was involved and how it went:

• Lumentum +11% 🚀
• Kioxia +16% 🚀
• SanDisk +16% 🚀
• Micron +15% 🚀
• Dell +21% 🚀🚀
• HPE +25% 🚀🚀
• Recruit +1% 🐌

The overall result was driven equally strongly by all of them. Only Recruit Holdings was unable to keep pace with the strength of the others.

YTD, the momentum performance now stands at a strong +110% TTWROR. 🤯😍

The analyses will now show whether there will be any changes for October. At least, that’s what I’m expecting. The analyses are underway...

Only 33 more to go until a million 🥹

Edit: Recruit Holdings is no longer in the portfolio for October. After a long wait, we now officially welcome SanDisk to the MSCI World Index—and thus directly into the portfolio (I’d already held it for a while as a precaution)—and Marvell has also made it back into the lineup. Here’s to a great October, which we’d love to see bring us the 3x.xxx,xx € mark!

SanDisk $SNDK (-5,71 %) up 28 percent, Western Digital $WDC (-6,56 %) down 18 percent. Both in the same sector, in the same month. My model didn’t react to either of these movements, yet at the end of the month it was still up 3.03 percent.

August had two sides. At the beginning of the month, mild inflation data was released, and the S&P 500 hit an all-time high of 7,816 points on August 13. After that, sentiment on the bond markets shifted. The 30-year U.S. yield rose to its highest level in nearly twenty years, and U.S. gross debt exceeded forty trillion dollars. At the end of the month, Nvidia reported $NVDA (-1,52 %) quarterly revenue of 96.2 billion, an increase of 106 percent. The next day, Fed Chairman Warsh signaled a pause in Jackson Hole, and the market priced in an interest rate hike in September.

📊 Monthly performance: +3.03%

📊 Max. Performance: 16.1%

📊 Price as of Aug. 31: €116.85

📊 Next Rebalancing: October 1, 2026

Performance & Comparison 🚀

August was a positive month for all major indices. The Nasdaq led the way, driven by Nvidia. The model performed in the middle of the pack and outperformed the broad indices.

Performance Comparison (August 1–August 31, 2026, end of day):

Global Quant 6-Factor: +3.03%

NASDAQ 100: +3.57%

S&P 500: +2.74%

FTSE All-World: +2.27%

DAX: +2.03%

Purchases & Sales 💶

None. The model trades only quarterly; the last rebalancing took place on July 1. Nothing happens between those dates, even if individual positions diverge significantly. That is precisely the point of the rules. The next rebalancing is scheduled for October 1, when a larger portion of the portfolio will be replaced.

Top Movers in August 🟢

The month belonged to gold mining stocks. Over the course of the month, gold rose at times to nearly $4,700, reaching its highest level since May. By the end of the month, it had given back some of those gains. The move was driven by a weaker dollar combined with ongoing central bank purchases. Mining stocks react to this with leverage because their margins rise disproportionately. Coeur Mining $CDE (+0,59 %) topped the list with +35.68%, followed by Newmont $NEM (+2,11 %) at +33.60% and Endeavour Mining at +28.33%. Fresnillo $FRES (+2,67 %) rose +26.63%. All four have been in the portfolio since the spring. In addition, the storage stocks performed well. SanDisk $SNDK (-5,71 %) rose by +28.07%, and Micron $MU (-5,27 %) by +12.50%.

August’s Biggest Losers 🔴

AppLovin $APP (-4,57 %) suffered the biggest loss at -20.78%. Western Digital $WDC (-6,56 %) fell -18.77%, while SanDisk gained nearly thirty percent over the same period. Comfort Systems $FIX (-3,63 %) fell by -13.00%, and Merlin Properties $MRL (+1,31 %)
-9.79%. Among financial stocks, the decline was limited; HSBC $HSBA (+0,08 %) lost -5.05%. Alphabet $GOOG (-2,22 %) fell -4.18%.

Conclusion 💡

August demonstrated the value of a diversified portfolio. While technology stocks diverged and AppLovin fell 20 percent, gold mines carried the month. None of these positions are in the portfolio based on personal opinion; they’re there because the ranking placed them at the top. October 1 will be interesting because a large portion of the commodity stocks are on the sell list.

❓ Question for the Community

Did the volatility in August make you get cold feet, or did you stubbornly hold onto your positions? And how much gold do you currently have in your portfolio?

👇 Let us know in the comments!

➡️ Every month, you’ll find the full Wikifolio update here, along with research from the model in between.

🗞️ Newsletter: codeandcapitalquant.beehiiv.com

📈 Wikifolio: https://www.wikifolio.com/de/de/w/wf0gquant6

$DE000LS9V052 (-2,4 %)

Right now, $SNDK (-5,71 %) my absolute favorite trade. I just entered the position for the third time using a derivative. Right now, it’s trading almost daily within a range between $1,450 and $1,530—that’s roughly a 6% daily trading range. Even with moderate leverage, you can make some money pretty quickly.

$285A (-7,64 %)
$SNDK (-5,71 %)

I just invested in Kioxia.

Japanese memory chip manufacturers plan to significantly increase their production. Over the next six years, more than five trillion yen are set to be invested in new and existing factories.

Tokyo. Memory chip manufacturers Kioxia and Sandisk plan to invest Japan more than five trillion Yen . That amounts to approximately 26.9 billion euros. With this expansion over six years, the companies aim to increase production of a component critical to AI data centers, which is currently in short supply.

The Tokyo-based NAND flash memory specialist plans to invest 1.8 trillion yen alone in a new factory in Kitakami, Japan, Kioxia CEO Hiroo Ota said on Thursday. The plant is set to manufacture the company’s latest high-density 3D flash memory chips. These chips are designed to process the enormous volumes of data generated by AI services. The companies wished to remain anonymous because the plans have not yet been made public.

Kioxia plans to carry out the investments together with its manufacturing partner, SanDisk. Demand for memory chips has risen sharply recently, and so have prices. These components are indispensable for data centers and are putting pressure on the margins of companies—from Nvidia to auto and smartphone manufacturers. During a conference call following the release of quarterly earnings, executives from Nvidia warned of supply bottlenecks and pressure on profit margins.

Kioxia Hints at Government Support

Kioxia and SanDisk plan to apply for subsidies from the Japanese government for their projects, reports the financial news agency Bloomberg, citing insiders. Kioxia stated in a press release that the company is considering, among other things, the construction of new facilities to increase corporate value “steadily and sustainably.”

Kioxia has likely secured favorable long-term contracts with customers that will underpin future growth, said Kazuyoshi Saito, a senior analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities. “That’s extremely positive.”

Major technology companies such as Alphabet and Meta are signing multi-year contracts to secure memory and data storage capacity for their data centers. This has triggered SK Hynix a series of extensive investment plans.

Concerns About an Oversupply

Meanwhile, in the lower-margin consumer memory chip business, Chinese manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies is gaining market share. Concerns that Kioxia will only invest once a future oversupply has already begun to weigh on the market again have put pressure on the company’s stock price. Since its peak in June, the stock price has fallen by half.

Kioxia could easily finance investments amounting to billions using its existing cash reserves, said Citi analyst Takero Fujiwara in a report. In his view, a decision to invest would signal that the company has secured long-term contracts. These contracts point to high demand at least through 2028.

“Although the company remains cautious about its investments, it has demonstrated its willingness to invest when necessary,” Fujiwara wrote.

For some time now, Japan has been providing financial support to chip manufacturers with production facilities in the country. These include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), Sony and Micron. The government aims to regain some of Japan’s former leadership role in the semiconductor industry.

Last month, Kioxia began shipping its tenth-generation stacked BiCS flash memory chips. At its facility in Iwate Prefecture, the company plans to produce higher-end NAND chips for data centers. The other major production center in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, will focus on chips for consumer products such as smartphones.

More:
Plötzlich heiß begehrt: Speicherchips werden zum Flaschenhals der KI

Speicherchips: Kioxia und Sandisk planen Milliardeninvestitionen