Investing Research Articles

Does finance professor David Kass, who presents annual lists of stock picks on Seeking Alpha, make good selections? To investigate, we consider his picks of: “10 Stocks for 2020”: APPL, BAC, BRK-A, WBD, JPM, MSFT, OXY, PH, SWK, STNE “16 Stocks For 2021”: GOOG, ABBV, AMZN, APPL, BAC, BRK-A, CABO, CHTR, LSXMK, META, MU, MSFT,… Keep Reading

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 through three trading days after for the following holidays (adding the Super Bowl) as available since 1950: New Year’s Day… Keep Reading

Does the seasonal shift marked by the Easter holiday, with the U.S. stock market closed on the preceding Good Friday, produce anomalous returns? To investigate, we analyze the historical behavior of the S&P 500 Index before and after the holiday. Using daily closing levels of the S&P 500 index for 1950-2023 (74 events), we find… Keep Reading

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 your investing needs. Subscribers: To receive these weekly digests via email, click here to sign up for our mailing list.

“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 5-year, 3-year and 1-year cumulative returns. A deeper look at performance may be helpful. We extend the test period by… Keep Reading

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 tests the ability of his proprietary Money Anxiety Index (MAI) to identify long and short portfolios of ETFs that beat… Keep Reading

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? Simple return-to-risk calculations versus Sharpe ratio? Using quarterly S&P 500 Index levels and dividends, quarterly U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data (all… Keep Reading

Some stock market experts cite the year (1, 2, 3 or 4) of the U.S. presidential term cycle as a useful indicator of U.S. stock market returns. Game theory suggests that presidents deliver bad news immediately after being elected and do everything in their power to create good news just before ensuing biennial elections. Are… Keep Reading

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 Noh examine interactions of stock mispricing and news release sentiment. They consider 11 mispricing signals to identify overpriced and underpriced… Keep Reading

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 your investing needs. Subscribers: To receive these weekly digests via email, click here to sign up for our mailing list.