Quant Mashup - Alpha Architect Industry and factor momentum: is there a theoretical foundation? [Alpha Architect]This post is the second and final portion of the review on momentum published on Momentum literature. The seminal article on momentum was published by Jegadeesh and Titman in 1993. Although the Jegadeesh article foreshadowed much of the research on cross-sectional and time series momentum at the(...) The decline in interest rates: its role in asset pricing anomalies [Alpha Architect]At its most basic level, factor-based investing is simply about defining, and then systematically following, a set of rules that produce diversified portfolios. An example of factor-based investing is a value strategy, buying cheap (low valuation) assets and selling expensive (high valuation)(...) The Cross Section of Stock Returns Pre CRSP data [Alpha Architect]What are the Research Questions? Several studies reveal variables that predict cross-sectional differences in stock returns but mainly rely on a sample of U.S. stocks, mostly covering the post-1963 period. These studies are often criticized for potential data mining issues since the database never(...) Market Risk and Speculative Factors [Alpha Architect]There are basically two types of investors, those that are risk averse and, thus, both demand risk premiums for taking risk and diversify their holdings, and those who are risk seekers who have a preference for positively skewed (lottery-like) returns which leads them to speculate and concentrate(...) Momentum literature: an analysis of 30 years [Alpha Architect]n this article, the author examines the research published over the last 30 years on momentum and its theoretical credibility. One of the original momentum articles was published by Jegadeesh and Titman in 1993, and is considered the seminal work on the topic. The research review contained in this(...) Momentum Gap - its role in reducing crashes [Alpha Architect]This article discusses the academic research about the Momentum Gap and the role that its predictive potential may have in reducing momentum crashes, hence possibly improving performance. In our book “Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing,” Andrew Berkin and I presented the evidence(...) Asynchronous Trading Revisited: Practical Implications [Alpha Architect]In this article, the author examines several important questions related to asynchronous trading, or the variation in trading frequency that occurs when trading stocks or other assets. Timo Wiedemann, University of Muenster (Germany) The newest version of the paper can be found here. What are the(...) The Effect of Indexing on Price Discovery and Limits to Arbitrage [Alpha Architect]The rise of stock indexing has raised concerns that index investing distorts stock prices—indexers are free riders who rely on prices without contributing to price discovery, thus reducing price efficiency. Byung Ahn and Panos Patatoukas, authors of the study “Identifying the Effect of Stock(...) Democracy: is it better for the stock market? [Alpha Architect]In this article, we examine the research that addresses the question of whether or not democracy leads to better possible outcomes for the stock market. Democracy and Stock Returns Xun Lei and Tomasz Piotr Wisniewski SSRN Working Paper A version of this paper can be found here Want to read our(...) Lottery Demand and the Asset Growth Anomaly [Alpha Architect]It is well documented in the literature that over the long term, low-investment firms have outperformed high-investment firms—with the negative relation between asset growth (AG) and future stock returns particularly featured by the overvaluation of high AG stocks. This finding has led to the(...) Momentum Everywhere, Including Emerging Markets [Alpha Architect]In order for investors to determine which of the hundreds of factors in what John Cochrane famously called the “zoo of factors” were worthy of investment, Andrew Berkin and I set out seven criteria in our book “Your Complete Guide to Factor-based Investing.” For a factor to be considered, it(...) Consumer Spending Data and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns [Alpha Architect]Consumer demand drives the cash flows of consumer-oriented companies. Thus, they should serve as a reliable source of information to predict future fundamentals above and beyond the information contained in financial statements and readily available market data. For example, Jiekun Huang, author of(...) Should Levered and Inverse ETFs Even Exist? [Alpha Architect]In 2019, the SEC proposed that all brokers and advisors be required to determine whether or not their clients understood the risks of investing in levered and inverse exchange traded products before selling such products to them. The SEC moved on this requirement in response to a series of fund(...) Has the Stock Market Systematically Changed? [Alpha Architect]The past few years in the stock market have been pretty crazy. And the pinnacle of “crazy” was during March 2020 — peak chaos in the stock market. Below is a chart of US large-cap stocks and small-cap stocks in 2020. Note the monster crash in March — watch out below! Source: koyfin.com As an(...) How Did Momentum Investing Perform After the Previous Two Valuation Peaks? [Alpha Architect]Near the end of 2021, I wrote an article noting that value portfolios looked historically cheap based on valuation spreads. I found that in the next five years (after the peak), Value investing performed quite well.(1) Following this post, I have received numerous questions related to the following(...) The Short-Duration Equity Premium [Alpha Architect]The objective of research into asset pricing is to determine which characteristics are most important for predicting returns and then build simplified models using as few factors as possible—to tame the so-called “zoo of factors”—while still providing a high level of explanatory power. In(...) Momentum - a separate factor or does it subsume stock risk? [Alpha Architect]Breaking new ground, the authors present a novel view on the nature and source of “momentum” that differs from our current understanding of momentum, whether it be industry momentum, residual, or any other version of momentum. Explanations of the source of profitability for momentum strategies(...) Brand Values and Long-Term Stock Returns [Alpha Architect]Despite the fact that a company’s internally generated intangible investments create future value, (Summary) under current U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, internally developed intangibles are not included in reported assets. While research and development (R&D) is an important(...) How You Sort Matters in Sorting Factor Portfolios [Alpha Architect]In “Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing,” Andrew Berkin and I established criteria that must be met before considering investing in a factor-based strategy. We established the criteria to minimize the risks that any findings were the result of data-mining exercises. Data mining occurs(...) Is Relative Sentiment an Anomaly? [Alpha Architect]Relative sentiment is an indicator that measures the positions, flows, and attitudes of institutional investors compared to those of individual investors–where institutions typically consist of large asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, and endowments. In some instances,(...) Alpha from Short-Term Signals [Alpha Architect]In “Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing” Andrew Berkin and I provided six criteria that had to be met in order to determine which exhibits in the “factor zoo” are worthy of investment. For a factor to be considered, it must meet all of the following tests. To start, it must provide(...) Mining Credit Card Data for Stock Returns [Alpha Architect]In this article, the authors explore an alternative measure of consumer demand from a unique dataset of individual credit and debit card daily transactions ( available one week after the transaction was made on average) from January 2013 to December 2019. They ask the following: Can more timely(...) Treasury Bonds: Buy and Hold or Trend Follow? [Alpha Architect]We were recently asked what we thought about bonds as an investment. A lot of this was inspired by my comments on bonds via a discussion on how I personally invest. I’ll repost what I said on bonds below: What are your thoughts on bonds and commodities? In general, I’m not a fan of corporate(...) What Drives Momentum and Reversal? [Alpha Architect]What are the research questions? Theories abound in the financial literature explaining the drivers of momentum and reversal in one way or another. Not surprisingly, most portray the role of public and private information as key to the underlying relationships and weigh the type of information(...) Avoiding Momentum Crashes [Alpha Architect]In our book “Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing,” Andrew Berkin and I presented the evidence demonstrating that momentum, both cross-sectional (CSMOM) and time-series (TSMOM), has provided a premium that has been found to be persistent across time and economic regimes, pervasive(...) Trend Following Says Commodities...But Nothing Else! [Alpha Architect]Just recently we posted the trend-following weights for our Robust Asset Allocation model. Something interesting happened — the model suggested zero exposure to every asset, except commodities(1) source: https://alphaarchitect.com/indexes/trend/#trendasset My knee-jerk reaction was, “Wow, never(...) Do Stocks Efficiently Predict Recessions? [Alpha Architect]What are the Research Questions? There is abundant literature on the relationship between the business cycle and future stock returns. The traditional view is that stocks are rationally priced to immediately reflect investors’ expectations about future economic activity and that expected excess(...) The Expected Returns to ESG-Excluded Stocks [Alpha Architect]As Sam Adams and I explained in our new book, “Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing,” while sustainable investing continues to gain in popularity, economic theory suggests that if a large enough proportion of investors choose to favor companies with high sustainability ratings (green(...) Relative Sentiment and Machine Learning for Tactical Asset Allocation: Out-of-Sample Results [Alpha Architect]In our last installment, we reviewed the performance–across four regions–of a machine-learning-based Sentix relative sentiment model for tactical asset allocation. The regions included: the USA, Europe, Japan, and Asia ex-Japan (referred to as USA, EUR, JPN, and AEJ, respectively, in the charts(...) Short Sellers Are Informed Investors [Alpha Architect]Short sellers play a valuable role in keeping market prices efficient by preventing overpricing and the formation of price bubbles in financial markets. Market efficiency is important because an efficient market allocates capital efficiently. If short sellers were inhibited from expressing their(...) Can We Measure Inflation with Twitter [Alpha Architect]Twitter is an interesting dataset for researchers interested in consumer beliefs. (200 million monthly active users worldwide (Elon Musk may disagree!) and about 10 million active users in Italy in 2019 (AGCOM 2020)). Inflation expectations are at the heart of any consumption and investment decision(...) Momentum Everywhere, Including in Factors [Alpha Architect]Empirical research, including the 2017 paper “A Century of Evidence on Trend-Following Investing,” has found momentum to be a persistent and pervasive factor in returns of not only stocks but other asset classes as well, including bonds, commodities, and currencies. Recent empirical research on(...) An Investor’s Guide to Crypto [Alpha Architect]With a capitalization of $1.3 trillion, cryptocurrencies are now (2022) roughly 50% of the value of US dollars and coins. What was once a fad, has now become prominent and increasingly diverse from an investor’s point of view. In response, this article discusses five key features and concepts(...) Does Intangible-Adjusted Book-to-Market Work? [Alpha Architect]Recent research shows that B/M is losing explanatory power (Asness et al. 2015, Fama-French 2015, Hou et al. 2015). Some have theorized that the decrease in effectiveness in B/M is due to the increasingly large value of intangible assets. Forty years ago the market was dominated by Kodak, General(...) Combining Factors in Multifactor Portfolios [Alpha Architect]Christoph Reschenhofer contributes to the factor-based investment literature with his April 2022 paper, “Combining Factors,” in which he investigated the performance of multifactor portfolios formed via a combination of stock characteristics scores. He began by noting that while “the finance(...) How I Invest My Own Money: Robust to Chaos [Alpha Architect]A lot of people ask me how I invest my own money, and I am always happy to oblige. But I have never discussed the topic in the public (unlike my friend Meb, who has a great post dedicated to the subject). However, this past week Justin and Jack asked if they could grill me on my personal portfolio(...) Can Machine Learning Identify Future Outperforming Active Equity Funds? [Alpha Architect]Ron Kaniel, Zihan Lin, Markus Pelger, and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh contribute to the asset pricing literature with their January 2022 study “Machine-Learning the Skill of Mutual Fund Managers” in which they used machine learning in the form of an artificial neural network to examine the universe(...) Using Institutional Investor's Trading Data in Factors [Alpha Architect]Can the returns from running factor strategies be enhanced if institutional investors selectively and actively participate? Most of the evidence presented in this paper would suggest the answer is an unqualified YES. The authors argue this would require institutional investors to possess and then(...) Does Emerging Markets Investing Make Sense? [Alpha Architect]This post focuses on the costs and benefits of including generic broad-based emerging market exposures in one’s portfolio (Note, we do not discuss factors/freedom/etc.). The analysis is not meant to be exhaustive and/or highly complex. Nor is it meant to sway the reader in one direction or the(...) Relative Sentiment and Machine Learning for Tactical Asset Allocation [Alpha Architect]By the middle of 2019, we had been running an ensemble of relative sentiment(1) indicators in live asset management for several years. One of the components of that ensemble was a strategy that looked at Sentix sentiment indices. For those unfamiliar with Sentix (a German company), every week it(...) Factors Investing in Cryptocurrency [Alpha Architect]Cryptocurrency investing is a widely debated topic and one can find plenty of debates on Twitter discussing the fed, fiat currencies, and inflation. Regardless of where you fall on the crypto spectrum, we try and focus on research-centric takes on various investment themes whenever possible. The(...) The Unintended Consequences of Single Factor Strategies [Alpha Architect]Since the 1992 publication of “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns” by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French factor-based strategies and products have become an integral part of the global asset management landscape. While “top-down” allocation to factor premiums (such as size, value,(...) Visualizing the Robustness of the US Equity ETF Market [Alpha Architect]Market commentators sometimes suggest that the equity ETF market is just a bunch of “index funds” that all do essentially the same thing: deliver undifferentiated stock market exposure. How true is that statement? Fortunately, we can test the hypothesis that the ETF market is roughly a few(...) Do Connections Pay Off in the Bitcoin Market? [Alpha Architect]Traditional asset pricing theory holds that the workings of information networks among investors are good descriptors of equity markets. Investors that are “better informed” about fundamentals and who trade earlier than less well informed investors will receive higher returns. As the” better(...) Short-term Momentum [Alpha Architect]Momentum, the tendency of past winner stocks to outperform past loser stocks over the next several months, is one of the most well-documented and well-researched asset pricing anomalies. In the asset pricing literature, momentum is generally defined over the short-, medium- and long-term in the(...) Options Hedging & Leveraged ETFs in Market Swings [Alpha Architect]Not long ago, GameStop stock rose like crazy in only a few hours with the effects of broker-dealer options hedging spurred by retail investor buying pressure. And from February to March 2020, options trading activity was also pointed to as a contributor to stock swings in the Covid-19 selloff. The(...) Strategies to Mitigate Tail Risk [Alpha Architect]Investors care about more than just returns. They also care about risk. Thus, prudent investors include consideration of strategies that can provide at least some protection against adverse events that lead to left tail risk (portfolios crashing). The cost of that protection (the impact on expected(...) Value Investing: Headwinds, Tailwinds, and Variables [Alpha Architect]n my past life as a rower, I spent a lot of time figuring out which way the wind was blowing: Would it be a headwind and slow things down? Or would it be a tailwind and shorten the race? But a tailwind that went against the current could cause choppy water…which would slow things back down.(...) Trend Following: Timing Fast and Slow Trends [Alpha Architect]Momentum, the tendency of past winner stocks to outperform past loser stocks over the next several months, is one of the most well-documented and well-researched asset pricing anomalies. In our book “Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing,” Andrew Berkin and I presented the evidence of a(...) Form 3 and Form 4 Alpha: Focus on What Insiders Don't Trade [Alpha Architect]Plenty of research ( most recently, Cziraki et al. 2021) shows that insider buys contain value-relevant information while insider sales include little to no information. But what about the action of “not trading”? The authors of this study ask the following: Are the trades of portfolio insiders(...)