Low Volatility Investing

Low-Volatility or Low-Beta Research

The Quality Factor and the Low-Beta Anomaly

By |August 4th, 2023|Research Insights, Factor Investing, Larry Swedroe, Low Volatility Investing|

The empirical evidence demonstrates that returns to the low-beta anomaly are well explained by exposure to other common factors, and it has only justified investment when low-beta stocks were in the value regime, after periods of strong market and small-cap stock performance, and when they excluded high-beta stocks that had low short interest.

How factor exposure changes over time: a study of Information Decay

By |April 17th, 2023|Quality Investing, Factor Investing, Research Insights, Basilico and Johnsen, Academic Research Insight, Value Investing Research, Momentum Investing Research, Low Volatility Investing|

Factor strategies need to be rebalanced in order to maintain their factor exposure. But different factors decay at different rates and this affects how they should be rebalanced. For example, momentum needs to be rebalanced more than value. This study digs into these questions.

The Short-Duration Equity Premium

By |September 15th, 2022|Larry Swedroe, Factor Investing, Research Insights, Academic Research Insight, Low Volatility Investing|

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.

Betting Against Beta: New Insights

By |April 28th, 2022|Larry Swedroe, Factor Investing, Research Insights, Academic Research Insight, Value Investing Research, Momentum Investing Research, Low Volatility Investing|

The intuition behind betting against beta is that leverage-constrained investors, instead of applying leverage, obtain an expected return higher than the market’s expected return through overweighting high-beta stocks and underweighting low-beta stocks in their portfolios. Their actions lower future risk-adjusted returns on high-beta stocks and increase future risk-adjusted returns on low-beta stocks. We take a deeper look into this idea.

A Deep Dive into the Low Beta Premium

By |March 17th, 2022|Research Insights, Factor Investing, Larry Swedroe, Academic Research Insight, Low Volatility Investing|

The superior performance of low-volatility stocks was first documented in the literature in the 1970s—by Fischer Black in 1972, among others —even before the size and value  premiums were “discovered.” The low-volatility anomaly has been shown to exist in equity markets around the world. Interestingly, this finding is true not only for stocks but for bonds as well. In other words, it has been pervasive...but

Chasing Low Beta Loses Alpha

By |November 19th, 2021|Research Insights, Factor Investing, Larry Swedroe, Academic Research Insight, Low Volatility Investing|

One of the big problems for the first formal asset pricing model developed by financial economists, the CAPM, was that it predicts a positive relationship between risk and return. However, empirical studies have found the actual relationship to be basically flat, or even negative. Over the last 50 years, the most “defensive” (low-volatility or low-beta, low-risk) stocks have delivered both higher returns and higher risk-adjusted returns than the most “aggressive” (high-volatility, high-risk) stocks.

Low Volatility Factor Investing: Risk-Based or Behavioral-Based or Both?

By |March 8th, 2021|Volatility (e.g., VIX), Research Insights, Factor Investing, Basilico and Johnsen, Academic Research Insight, Low Volatility Investing|

Betting against correlation: Testing theories of the low-risk effect Cliff Asness, Andrea Frazzini, Niels Joachim Gormsen, Lasse Heje PedersenJournal of Financial EconomicsA version of this paper can be found hereWant to read our summaries of academic [...]

Does Portfolio Timing Based on Volatility Signals Outperform Buy and Hold?

By |October 26th, 2020|Factor Investing, Research Insights, Basilico and Johnsen, Academic Research Insight, Low Volatility Investing, Tactical Asset Allocation Research|

On the Performance of Volatility-Managed Portfolios Scott Cederburg, Michael S. O’Doherty, Feifei Wang, Xuemin (Sterling) YanJournal of Financial EconomicsA version of this paper can be found hereWant to read our summaries of academic finance papers? Check [...]

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