How Leverage Constraints Effect Mutual Fund Risk Taking
The 2014 study by Andrea Frazzini and Lasse Heje Pedersen, “Betting Against Beta,” found strong support for low-beta strategies. I’ve previously written on low-beta strategies [...]
The Conservative Formula: Quantitative Investing made Easy
The Conservative Formula: Quantitative Investing made Easy Pim van Vliet and David Blitz A version of this paper can be found here. Want to read our [...]
Smart Beta is Officially Dead, but Not Forgotten
What is Smart Beta? Nobody really knows these days. Heck, even the godfather of smart beta, Rob Arnott, is no longer certain. Here's his original [...]
Podcast: Quantitative Value Investing on the Stansberry Investor Hour (Wes)
You can listen to the podcast via the link below: Here is a link to our podcast on the Stansberry Investor Hour. Show Summary It’s [...]
Academic Factor Portfolios are Extremely Painful. Unless you are an Alien.
Imagine you are an alien. You land on planet earth in 1927 and are given a mission. You are told that you need to solve a [...]
Accruals Momentum as an Investment Strategy
Accruals are a part of any company's financial reporting. For those unfamiliar with accrual accounting, a simple explanation is that accruals are adjustments made for [...]
The Best Research Paper Ever Written on Trading Costs
Trading costs are a hot topic these days. The topic has sparked investor attention because of the rise of systematic factor investing strategies available via [...]
Podcast: Factor Investing with Vanguard Factor Fund PM Liqian Ren (Wes & Jack)
Here is a link to our podcast on Behind the Markets In this episode of Behind the Markets host Wes Gray talks factor investing as [...]
Factor Investing Insights You Won’t Hear from Fama and French
Factor investing research has a long storied past. Fama and French's 1992 and 1993 papers arguably put factor investing "on the map," but truth be [...]
Which Investment Factors Drive Corporate Bond Returns
Which Investment Factors Drive Corporate Bond Returns Turan G. Bali, Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, & Quan Wen A version of this paper can be found here. Want to [...]
Deconstructing the Low Volatility/Low Beta Anomaly
One of the big problems for the first formal asset pricing model developed by financial economists, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), was that it [...]
Do Fundamentals Still Drive Market Prices? Or Have ETFs Taken Over?
What causes a stock's price to move? A great question, and one that puzzles most market observers every day. Since this is puzzling, it is [...]
Podcast: Momentum in Theory, Momentum in Practice (Jack)
Here is a link to our podcast on Flirting with Models. Today I am speaking with Jack Vogel, co-CIO of boutique ETF issuer Alpha Architect. [...]
Explaining the Beta Anomaly
The superior performance of low-beta and low-volatility stocks was documented in the literature back in the 1970s — by Fischer Black (in 1972) among others [...]
Why you should trust the investment process (even though it’s hard)
In this article, we discuss why trusting an investment process can be very hard, and how you should approach the challenge. Trust the Process - [...]
The 52 Week High and the Q-Factor Investment Model
In the past, we have examined the following two topics: (1) stock performance & the 52-week high and (2) the investment CAPM. When examining the [...]
The Future for Factor Investing May Be Different Than its Backtested Past
We believe there are cause and effect relationships in the world -- and in investing -- that hold true over time. Many are common sense [...]
The Inconsistent Performance of Value and Size Factors in the Chinese A-Share Market
Fama–French in China: Size and Value Factors in Chinese Stock Returns Grace Xing Hu, Can Chen, Yuan Shao, and Jiang Wang International Review of Finance [...]
Factor Regressions Problems and How to Fix Them
Factor Regressions are one way to ascertain a fund's exposure to certain factors that an investor/advisor may want to allocate towards, such as Value, Momentum, [...]
Investor Attention and the Low Volatility Anomaly
One of the big problems for the first formal asset pricing model developed by financial economists, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), was that it [...]