April 2, 2024 Equity Options
Do economic data releases trigger predictably large returns in short-term equity index options? In their February 2024 paper entitled “Expected 1DTE Option Returns”, Michael Johannes, Andreas Kaeck, Norman Seeger and Neel Shah analyze returns to...
April 1, 2024 Big Ideas
Technological disruption (as experienced with widespread electrification and the rise of the world-wide web, and imagined for artificial intelligence) is a recurring feature of human history. Such disruptions presents risks and opportunities for investors. How...
March 28, 2024 Miscellaneous
Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 3/25/24 through 3/28/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to...
March 28, 2024 Strategic Allocation
A subscriber asked for assessment of a strategy that holds 70% SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and 30% SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) (SPY-BIL 70-30), rebalanced every eight weeks, with explicit comparison...
March 26, 2024 Calendar Effects
Is the behavior of the U.S. stock market around exchange holidays consistent enough to generate an aggregate pattern? To investigate, we look at daily S&P 500 Index returns from three trading days before a holiday...
March 22, 2024 Miscellaneous
Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 3/18/24 through 3/22/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to...
March 22, 2024 Economic Indicators, Sentiment Indicators
“Using the Money Anxiety Index for ETF Selection” examines whether the proprietary Money Anxiety Index (MAI) can select long and short portfolios of ETFs that beat the S&P 500 Index (ignoring dividends). Test outputs are...
March 21, 2024 Economic Indicators, Sentiment Indicators
Does anxiety about having enough money play an important role in asset selection decisions, and thereby asset returns? In his March 2024 paper entitled “Money Anxiety Theory – a Predictor of Equity’s Performance”, Dan Geller...
March 20, 2024 Equity Premium
How different are stock market performance metrics for: Capital gains only, capital gains plus dividends accrued as cash (spent or saved), and capital gains plus dividends reinvested in the stock market? Nominal versus real returns?...
March 18, 2024 Sentiment Indicators
What happens to mispriced stocks when associated firms issue positive or negative news? In their February 2024 paper entitled “Beauty Contests and Higher Order Beliefs: Evidence from News Releases”, Tarun Chordia, Bin Miao and Joonki...
March 15, 2024 Miscellaneous
Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 3/11/24 through 3/15/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to...
March 15, 2024 Strategic Allocation
A subscriber observed that backtesting of momentum-based trading systems typically assumes perfect rebalancing each month whether or not they select new assets. Would delaying rebalancing until new assets are selected improve strategy performance? To investigate,...
March 14, 2024 Equity Premium, Fundamental Valuation
Prior to 2015, we tracked performance of an equity market timing model based on real earnings yield (REY). The Simple Asset Class ETF Value Strategy (SACEVS) subsumed that model in 2015. Earnings yield is aggregate...
March 13, 2024 Equity Premium, Strategic Allocation
Referring to “Substitute QQQ for SPY in SACEVS and SACEMS?” and “Conditionally Substitute SSO for SPY in SACEVS and SACEMS?”, a subscriber requested a horse race for boosting the performance of theĀ Simple Asset Class ETF...
March 12, 2024 Big Ideas, Investing Expertise
Some exchange-traded funds (ETF) focus on capturing potentially attractive factor premiums or thematic niches. Their histories offer a way to test these concepts live. We have conducted many such tests, listed here to offer a...
March 8, 2024 Miscellaneous
Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 3/4/24 through 3/8/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to...
March 7, 2024 Economic Indicators
The inflation rate is a fundamental determinant of the discount rate used to calculate the present value of an asset. Changes in inflation therefore affect asset valuations. Do experts, as polled in the quarterly Survey...
March 6, 2024 Economic Indicators, Momentum Investing
Is an investment strategy that follows trends in economic fundamentals (rather than asset prices) an attractive alternative to conventional momentum? In their January 2024 paper entitled “Economic Trend”, Jordan Brooks, Noah Feilbogen, Yao Hua Ooi...
March 5, 2024 Sentiment Indicators
Throughout each month, the National Federation of Independent Businesses surveys members on ten components of business conditions they anticipate six months hence. They issue findings on the second Tuesday of the following month inĀ “Small Business...
March 4, 2024 Bonds, Calendar Effects
Does iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) exhibit a predictable monthly pattern due to beginning-of-month dividends and mid-month U.S. government consumer and producer inflation releases? To investigate, we calculate average cumulative return for TLT...
March 1, 2024 Miscellaneous
Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 2/26/24 through 3/1/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to...
February 27, 2024 Equity Premium, Investing Expertise, Sentiment Indicators
Is ChatGPT useful for predicting stock market returns based on financial news headlines? In the December 2023 version of their paper entitled “ChatGPT, Stock Market Predictability and Links to the Macroeconomy”, Jian Chen, Guohao Tang,...
February 26, 2024 Equity Premium, Investing Expertise
Can enhanced machine learning models accurately time popular equity factors? In their January 2024 paper entitled “Multi-Factor Timing with Deep Learning”, Paul Cotturo, Fred Liu and Robert Proner explore equity factor timing via a multi-task...
February 23, 2024 Miscellaneous
Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 2/20/24 through 2/23/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to...
February 23, 2024 Commodity Futures, Momentum Investing
Do published commodity futures factors exhibit exploitable momentum? In their December 2023 paper entitled “Factor Momentum in Commodity Futures Markets”, Yiyan Qian, Xiaoquan Liu and Ying Jiang examine factor momentum in fully collateralized nearest-rolled contracts...