The Trade: How to play the home sales report

Pedestrians walk past a home with a "Sold" sign in San Francisco.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The monthly existing home sales number Tuesday is one of the most closely watched leading indicators for the U.S. economy. How can investors trade the number using history as a guide?

Using hedge fund analytics tool Kensho, CNBC Pro screened for which securities do well or poorly when the existing home sales report beats or misses consensus by a sizable amount over the past decade.

Here is what we found.