Is there a theoretical foundation behind industry and factor momentum
Industry and factor momentum should be viewed as recent developments in the wider momentum story, although these aggregated measures of momentum lack any theoretical foundation.
The Cross Section of Stock Returns Pre-CRSP data: Value and Momentum are confirmed as robust anomalies
We study the cross-section of stock returns using a novel constructed database of U.S. stocks covering 61 years of independent data.
Momentum Factor Investing: 30 years of Out of Sample Data
In 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 publication begins with the 1993 work and confines itself to only the highest quality journals among the plethora of work that has been published on momentum.
Bias in Beta and Implications for Empirical Asset Pricing
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.
Are ESG strategies more effective for societal impact or performance?
In this article, we examine the research addressing the question of to what extent, if any, ESG strategies improve investment performance on a risk-adjusted basis, or if they are more effectively used for the societal impact they potentially have.
The Effect of Indexing on Price Discovery and Limits to Arbitrage
We discuss the academic research about the causal effect of indexing on arbitrage conditions and price discovery.
Is Democracy better for the stock market?
We examine the question of whether or not democracy leads to better possible outcomes for the stock market.
Pulling the curtain back: what do millionaires invest in?
In this article, we examine the academic research about what millionaires invest in.
Does Gender Affect Reactions to Market Sentiment Shifts?
Does gender matter in institutional investing?
The Relationship Between the Demand for Leverage and Management Fees
This article discusses what academic research says about the relationship between the demand for leverage and management fees.
Gender Pay Gap Transparency
In this article, we examine what the research says about gender pay gap transparency. We look at the research questions and academic insights with an eye toward why it matters.
High-Frequency Consumer Spending Data and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns
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.
Should Levered and Inverse ETFs Even Exist?
In this article, we explore Levered and Inverse ETPs (exchange-traded products); their purpose, the circumstances in which they tend to succeed and fail, and the research questions associated with them.
The Short-Duration Equity Premium
We examine the short-duration premium using pre-scheduled economic, monetary policy, and earnings announcements. We provide high-frequency evidence that duration premia associated with revisions of economic growth and interest rate expectations are consistent with asset pricing models but cannot explain the short-duration premium. Instead, we show that the trading activity of sentiment-driven investors raises prices of long-duration stocks, which lowers their expected returns, and results in the short-duration premium. Long-duration stocks have the lowest institutional ownership, exhibit the largest forecast errors at earnings announcements, and show the highest mispricing scores.
Is Momentum a Separate Factor?
We find that factor momentum concentrates in factors that explain more of the cross section of returns and that it is not incidental to individual stock momentum: momentum-neutral factors display more momentum.
Brand Values and Long-Term Stock Returns
An equal-weighted portfolio of Best Brands (BBs) in the U.S. earns an excess return of 25 to 35 bps per month during the period 2000-2020. This result is remarkably robust across various factor models and therefore is not driven by exposure to common (risk) factors. The excess returns of the BB portfolio are not due to firm characteristics, industry composition, or small-cap stocks. We provide evidence suggesting that expensing investments in brands (instead of capitalizing them) and the tendency to underestimate the effect of brand name on generating future earnings are two mechanisms contributing to the excess returns.
ESG Ratings how do they Compare Across Data Providers?
Investments aligned with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles are rapidly growing globally. In the exchange traded fund (ETF) industry, this gives rise to the power of ESG rating firms that have the influence to direct capital flows into ETFs tracking the indexes. This article examines the issues of substantial ESG rating divergence across rating firms, the impact on investors’ choices, and the influence on the ETF industry. The divergence appears to be the greatest in social and governance components, and is often qualitative in nature. The author found that certain economic sectors are more prone to ESG rating divergence than others. She presents a case study about two ESG ETFs that are viewed quite differently under various rating lenses, and offers suggestions to investors, advisors, and analysts on how to research ESG ETFs, given the major rating divergence. The article concludes with ways the ETF industry could improve its practices collectively to better serve investors with clarity and to sustain the growth of ESG impact investments.
How You Sort Matters in Sorting Factor Portfolios
Non-standard errors capture uncertainty due to differences in research design choices. We establish substantial variation in the design choices made by researchers when constructing asset pricing factors. By purposely data mining over two thousand different versions of each factor, we find that Sharpe ratios exhibit substantial variation within a factor due to different construction choices, which results in sizable non-standard errors and allows for p-hacking. We provide simple suggestions that reduce the average non-standard error by 70%. Our study has important implications for model selection exercises.
Do Equity Markets Care About Income Inequality?
Do equity markets care about income inequality? We address this question by examining equity markets’ reaction and investors’ portfolio rebalancing in response to the first-time disclosure of the ratio of CEO to median worker pay by U.S. public companies in 2018. We find that firms’ disclosing higher pay ratios experience significantly lower abnormal announcement returns. Additional evidence suggests that equity markets “dislike” high pay dispersion rather than high CEO pay or low worker pay. Firms whose shareholders are more inequality-averse experience a more pronounced negative market response to high pay ratios compared to firms with less inequality-averse shareholders. Finally, we find that during 2018 more inequality-averse investors rebalance their portfolios away from high pay ratio stocks relative to other investors. Overall, our results suggest that equity markets are concerned about high within-firm pay dispersion, and investors’ attitude towards income inequality is a channel through which high pay ratios negatively affect firm value.
Financial Markets Responding to Climate Risks
This paper provides new evidence showing that carbon transition risk is becoming increasingly material and is priced both in equity and debt markets. We find that there is a widespread price-earnings discount linked to corporate carbon emissions. This discount varies, however, by sector and trends differently in Europe than in the US. We also find that a small discount emerges for corporate bonds, although it is statistically significant only for small caps. Finally, we find evidence that the pricing discount also emerges, albeit to a smaller extent, for other greenhouse gas emissions.