# Investor philosophies as rules you can test > On Nov 10, 2026, the 12 seats of ETFIQ's Investment Committee read SPY as 1 Supports, 5 Mixed and 6 Challenges. Free, on real ETF data. Data as of Nov 10, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night. ## Investor philosophies as rules you can test Data as of Nov 10, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night. On Nov 10, 2026 , the 12 seats of ETFIQ's Investment Committee read SPY as 1 Supports, 5 Mixed and 6 Challenges. Advanced Portfolio Design · Lesson 2 of 5 1 2 3 4 5 Set a yearly profit. See what the holdings' price comes to at SPY's P/E and at Graham's line. Yearly profit (hypothetical) $100 On $100: Price paid at SPY's P/E (35.1 times) $3,508, Price at Graham's line (15 times) $1,500. Hypothetical profit. SPY's P/E on three years' earnings and P/B are real marks as of Nov 10, 2026. ### The question Graham, Bogle and Swensen each had a famous way to invest. How do I check a fund against a philosophy? ### The idea - Each belief becomes a rule with three parts: - A number read from the fund's data, such as its fee or the price of its holdings against their earnings. - A line , the investor's own threshold wherever they published one. - A band , a small margin around the line, which reads Mixed . - ETFIQ's Investment Committee does exactly this. It has 12 seats. Eleven apply one investor's published rules each. The twelfth, the ETFIQ Skeptic , uses ETFIQ's own measures to test what the others found. Each seat reads Supports , Mixed , Challenges or Not enough data . They describe the data, never a call to act. - Seats disagree because philosophies disagree. That is the point. ### Worked example SPY tracks the S&P 500. Here are four of its seats, as of Nov 10, 2026 . (An example, not a pick.) Graham-style Margin of Safety. Benjamin Graham wanted to pay little for what a company earns. - Number: the holdings' price is 35.1 times their average yearly profit over three years. This is the P/E (price to earnings). Higher means paying more per dollar of profit. - Line: 15 times or less. - 35.1 ÷ 15 = 2.3 times Graham's line. Price against book value (what they own less what they owe): 5.6 x against his 1.5x. - Challenges . Bogle-style Low Cost. John Bogle wanted the lowest cost for the same exposure. - SPY's fee is 0.09% a year. That passes ETFIQ's line of 0.20% or less . - A second rule compares it with the cheapest fund tracking the same index. SPY costs 0.07 points more , which reads Mixed . - The seat can Support only when that comparison passes. Mixed . Swensen-style Diversification. David Swensen wanted broad holdings across core asset classes. - SPY is a core class held whole, with no niche bets: both pass. - Its ten largest companies hold 38.9% , against ETFIQ's line of under 25%, which reads Mixed . - Most criteria pass. Supports . The ETFIQ Skeptic. It asks whether the fund did what it says. - SPY trailed its benchmark by 0.1 points over a year. - The Skeptic objects at 2 points behind. Mixed . What you just saw: one fund, one day, opposite readings. Graham's rules punish high prices; Swensen's reward breadth. Both are right about their own question. The committee shows which philosophy your fund fits. No investor named is affiliated with or endorses ETFIQ. ### The common mistake "Six seats challenge SPY, so it's a bad fund." The committee is not a vote. A seat built for cheap stocks will challenge any fund priced near the market. First ask: which of these philosophies is mine? A Bogle follower weighs the Low Cost seat; a Graham reader, Margin of Safety. A second mistake: reading "Not enough data" as a fail. The seat simply could not measure enough to judge. ### Check your understanding Pick an answer to see why. Two of three right passes the lesson. 1. A Graham-style seat reads a fund priced at 18 times three years' earnings, against a line of 15 with a band just above it. The number falls in the band. What does the seat read on that rule? A Supports B Mixed C Challenges D Not enough data Answer: B. Mixed. a number inside the band reads Mixed. Not C: Challenges needs it to clear the band. 2. On the same day, a fund reads Supports from the Swensen seat and Challenges from the Graham seat. What is true? A One seat made an error B The fund is average C Each seat tested a different rule, so both can be right D The fund suits every investor Answer: C. Each seat tested a different rule, so both can be right. breadth and cheapness are different questions. Not A: disagreement is expected, not a fault. 3. A reader cares most about low costs. Which seat speaks most directly to that? A Bogle-style Low Cost B Graham-style Margin of Safety C Swensen-style Diversification D The tally of all 12 seats Answer: A. Bogle-style Low Cost. it tests the fee against a line and against same-index peers. Not D: the tally mixes philosophies you may not hold. ### Takeaways - Every seat is a number, a line and a band; read all three before the state. - Seats disagree because philosophies do; find yours. - The tally is not a vote, and no seat is a call to act. ### Do it on ETFIQ Put a fund you hold to the committee Your fund ### Where to next --- Source: ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices. Cite: ETFIQ, Investor philosophies as rules you can test, data as of Nov 10, 2026. https://etfiq.com/academy/advanced-portfolio-design/investor-philosophies-as-rules/ Licence: https://etfiq.com/license/ Data ETFIQ computes is free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms. HTML: https://etfiq.com/academy/advanced-portfolio-design/investor-philosophies-as-rules/