Other Insights

Trend-Following Filters – Part 8

This article describes digital filters derived from time series regression models that can be used as technical analysis tools. The filters are analyzed from a digital signal processing (DSP) frequency domain perspective to illustrate their properties. Example charts of the filters applied to the S&P 500 index are also included.

Investors trade Cryptos and Trad-Fi Differently

Retail traders are contrarian in stocks and gold, yet the same traders follow a momentum-like strategy in cryptocurrencies. The differences are not explained by individual characteristics, investor composition, inattention, differences in fees, or preference for lottery-like assets. We conjecture that retail investors have a model where cryptocurrency price changes affect the likelihood of future widespread adoption, which leads them to further update their price expectations in the same direction.

Adding Leveraged, Long-Short Factor Strategies to Improve Tax Alpha

Joseph Liberman, Stanley Krasner, Nathan Sosner, and Pedro Freitas, authors of the September 2023 study “Beyond Direct Indexing: Dynamic Direct Long-Short Investing,” examined if the utilization of leverage and long-short strategies motivated by the literature on factor-based investing could improve on the tax benefits of direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting.

Can smart rebalancing improve factor portfolios?

This paper provides new evidence on the efficacy of prioritizing transactions so as to focus portfolio turnover on the trades that offer the strongest signals and hence the highest potential performance impact.

The After-Fee Performance of Private Debt

Private debt funds are a rapidly growing segment of the private capital market. Isil Erel, Thomas Flanagan, and Michael Weisbach, authors of the April 2024 [...]

From Man vs. Machine to Man + Machine: The Art and AI of Stock Analyses

An AI analyst trained to digest corporate disclosures, industry trends, and macroeconomic indicators surpasses most analysts in stock return predictions. AI wins when information is transparent but voluminous. Humans provide significant incremental value in “Man + Machine,” which also substantially reduces extreme errors.

Evergreen Private Equity Funds Attracting Assets

Evergreen funds are a relatively new concept in the private equity (PE) world compared to traditional closed-end funds. They were introduced to address the negatives of the traditional way to invest in private equity which had been in the form of partnerships.

Fixing the poor performance of the book-to-market ratio

The authors effectively argue the case for intrinsic value and DCF based approaches to building Value factor strategies. The traditional value measures, especially the book-to-market ratio, are described as ineffective in today's market environment.

The Effect of ESG Strategies on Global Equity Returns

To determine the impact of sustainable investment strategies on equity returns, Romulo Alves, Philipp Krueger, and Mathijs van Dijk analyzed the relationship between ESG ratings and global stock returns. They found very little evidence that ESG ratings were related to global stock returns over the two-decade period.

Overvalued or New Paradigm?

Without question the topic of greatest debate among investors, including investment professionals, and financial economists, is whether or not the market, and the technology sector in particular, is overvalued. There are two very strong conflicting views regarding not only the current valuation of technology stocks, but also the valuation of the entire asset class of large-cap growth stocks. One side, I’ll call the “new paradigm” or “it’s different this time” school. The other side, I’ll call “the been there, done that” school. Its theme is those that don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. No two sides could have more different viewpoints. To understand each side, let’s imagine a dialogue between the two schools.

Factors and Taxes

As a result of the trading required to capture the premiums that drive factor strategies investors may face significant tax liabilities. The challenge for the [...]

Transaction costs for asset allocation and foreign exchange markets

Transaction costs have a first-order effect on the performance of currency portfolios. Proportional costs based on quoted bid–ask spread are relatively small, but when a fund is large, costs due to the trading volume price impact are sizable and quickly erode returns, leaving many popular strategies unprofitable.

The Negative Impact of Crowding on Active Fund Performance

The shrinking pool of public companies across which active funds can diversify their holdings, increases the risk of crowding, which the research we reviewed shows negatively impacts performance. That provides yet another reason for investors to choose to avoid playing the loser’s game of active management.

The Impact of Amortizing Volatility across Private Investments

The amortization of volatility should be of concern for private capital asset classes. In order to properly budget for beta risks, it is critical that investors in private assets understand the amount of systemic (beta) risk that will “wash” into their private portfolios.

Crypto owners know Crypto…but not finance

We find that a significant share of Canadian Bitcoin owners have low crypto knowledge and low financial literacy. We also find gender differences in crypto literacy among Bitcoin owners, with female owners scoring lower in Bitcoin knowledge than male owners.

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