Investing Research Articles

Are many accepted equity factors/return anomalies artifacts of the secular decline in interest rates during their discovery sample periods? In their September 2022 paper entitled “The Factor Multiverse: The Role of Interest Rates in Factor Discovery”, Jules van Binsbergen, Liang Ma and Michael Schwert study the role of the secular decline in interest rates since… Keep Reading

Do formal asset allocation methods specify a portfolio allocation to bitcoin (BTC)? In his September 2022 paper entitled “Optimal Allocation to Cryptocurrencies in Diversified Portfolios”, Artur Sepp applies four quantitative methods to estimate optimal allocations to bitcoin within systematically rebalanced portfolios. He considers: two risk-only methods based on either equal risk contribution or maximum diversification;… Keep Reading

How does elimination of broker commissions on stock trades affect individual investors? In their September 2022 paper entitled “Fee the People: Retail Investor Behavior and Trading Commission Fees”, Omri Even-Tov, Kimberlyn George, Shimon Kogan and Eric So examine how retail investors respond to selective elimination of trading commissions (fees) on the international trading platform eToro…. Keep Reading

Market commentators sometimes cite a high Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index (VIX), the options-implied volatility of the S&P 500 Index as an indicator of investor sentiment and therefore a contrarian signal for the stock market. Specifically, a relatively high (low) VIX indicates panic (complacency) and therefore pending stock market strength (weakness). Does evidence… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 10/3/22 through 10/7/22. 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.

Can investors beat a 60/40 stocks/bonds portfolio via a long-only momentum strategy applied to many asset class proxies? In their September 2022 paper entitled “Long-Only Multi-Asset Momentum: Searching for Absolute Returns”, Enrique Zambrano and Carlos Rizzolo explore variations of a long-only multi-asset momentum strategy. Strategy elements are: The asset universe is SPY, QQQ, IWM, VGK,… Keep Reading

Is growing interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues among investors and asset managers materially affecting stock selection decisions and associated returns? In the September 2022 version of their paper entitled “The Economic Impact of ESG Ratings”, Florian Berg, Florian Heeb and Julian Kölbel measure impacts of ESG rating changes on associated mutual fund… Keep Reading

A subscriber asked about potential relationships between percentages of MBA graduates hired by an industry/sector and the future returns for corresponding sectors. To investigate, we look at lead-lag relationships between annual percentages of University of Pennsylvania Wharton School MBA graduates entering four sectors (consumer, finance, health care and technology) and annual total returns for corresponding… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 9/26/22 through 9/30/22. 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.

Do exchange-traded funds (ETF) that track major currencies support a relative momentum strategy? To investigate, we consider the following four ETFs: Invesco DB US Dollar Bullish (UUP) Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Currency (FXE) Invesco CurrencyShares Japanese Yen (FXY) WisdomTree Chinese Yuan Strategy (CYB) We each month rank these ETFs based on past return over lookback intervals… Keep Reading