Investing Research Articles

Subscribers have asked whether substituting Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) for SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) as a proxy for gold improves the performance of the Simple Asset Class ETF Momentum Strategy (SACEMS)? To check, we backtest the strategy twice using either GLD or GDX to represent gold, and then compare results. Using dividend-adjusted closing prices for SACEMS… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 10/12/20 through 10/16/20. 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.

Which institutional investors do best and why? In the September 2020 update of their paper entitled “The Canadian Pension Fund Model: A Quantitative Portrait”, Alexander Beath, Sebastien Betermier, Chris Flynn and Quentin Spehner compare performances of Canadian pension funds and those of other countries, focusing on Sharpe ratio of the fund assets, Sharpe ratio of… Keep Reading

Based on the conventional definition of the value premium, value underperforms growth over last 13.5 years with maximum drawdown of a long value-short growth portfolio -55%. Is value investing dead? In the August 2020 update of their paper entitled “Reports of Value’s Death May Be Greatly Exaggerated”, Robert Arnott, Campbell Harvey, Vitali Kalesnik and Juhani… Keep Reading

What economic/financial variables are most useful in predicting re-election prospects for incumbent U.S. presidents? In the November 2012 revision of their paper entitled “Social Mood, Stock Market Performance and U.S. Presidential Elections: A Socionomic Perspective on Voting Results”, Robert Prechter, Deepak Goel, Wayne Parker and Matt Lampert analyze relationships between prior U.S. economic and equity… Keep Reading

Is gold a hedge and safe haven for other asset classes globally? In their September 2020 paper entitled “Gold as a Financial Instrument”, Pedro Gomis‐Porqueras, Shuping Shi and David Tan explore effectiveness of gold as hedge and safe haven for a variety of international market risks. They define a hedge as an asset with return… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 10/5/20 through 10/9/20. 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.

How do different asset classes interact with the Chinese yuan-U.S. dollar exchange rate? To investigate, we consider relationships between WisdomTree Chinese Yuan Strategy (CYB) and the exchange-traded fund (ETF) asset class proxies used in the Simple Asset Class ETF Momentum Strategy (SACEMS) and the Simple Asset Class ETF Value Strategy (SACEVS) at a monthly measurement… Keep Reading

Do sophisticated investors choose investment managers wisely? In their July 2020 paper entitled “Choosing Investment Managers”, Amit Goyal, Sunil Wahal and Deniz Yavuz investigate how institutional investors select investment managers for public equity and fixed income portfolios. For each actual selection, they construct a group of non-selected investment managers competing in the same geographic region,… Keep Reading

Are typical investors persistently irrational in pursuit of wealth, or pursuing more than wealth? In his December 2019 book entitled Behavioral Finance: The Second Generation, Meir Statman describes and discusses second-generation behavioral finance, which replaces (1) pursuit of wealth persistently retarded by cognitive shortcuts and emotional biases with (2) pursuit of normal wants including financial… Keep Reading