THE METHODOLOGY · PEER GROUPS
Every newsletter graded against its own kind
A crypto trader and a dividend investor are playing different games. Judging them on the same scale would be meaningless — so Walter never does. Every newsletter is sorted into a peer group, and a grade only ever means one thing: how this newsletter stacks up against others running the same kind of strategy.
How a newsletter gets placed
Walter looks at what a newsletter actually does over time — the instruments it trades, the sectors it favors, how it holds. A letter that's mostly technology names lands in Technology. One that trades mostly options sits with options strategies. One betting on rates and commodities is Macro. Placement follows the dominant, repeated behavior — not a label the newsletter gives itself — and it only changes if the behavior genuinely shifts and stays shifted, so a newsletter doesn't bounce between groups.
Each group has its own benchmark
Every group is measured against a yardstick that fits it — a technology letter against a technology ETF, a dividend letter against a dividend ETF, a macro letter against a broad bond or multi-asset benchmark. "Performance" always means performance relative to the right peers.
The groups
Equity — long-only
Long / Short
Macro
Crypto
Options
Options groups activate as coverage grows.
23 peer groups across 5 families. New groups open as more newsletters in a style reach full maturity.
When a group is too small to grade
A grade is only fair if there are enough peers to rank against. Until a group reaches a minimum of established newsletters, Walter falls back to the broader family — and if there still aren't enough, the newsletter's Score stays visible but its grade reads NR. No one is graded on a thin field.
© 2026 Walter Grades, Inc. All rights reserved. The Walter methodology is proprietary.