Value
Value and Interest Rates: Are Rates to Blame for Value’s Torments?
May 22, 2020
Some have blamed the interest rate environment for value stocks’ underperformance of growth stocks from 2017 to early 2020, as well as the stretch of lackluster performance for some value factors since Global Financial Crisis. We find the performance of value is not easily assessed based on the interest rate environment, and that factor timing strategies based on interest rate-related signals are likely to perform poorly.
Equities
Understanding a Tax-Aware Defensive Equity Long-Short Strategy
April 17, 2020
We describe a hypothetical Tax-Aware Defensive Equity Long-Short strategy, including its construction and pre-tax and after-tax performance. The strategy closely replicates the pre-tax performance of a similar hypothetical tax-agnostic strategy and has the potential to achieve a meaningful tax benefit for a taxable investor.
Equities
Equity Term Structures without Dividend Strips Data
March 12, 2020
We use a large cross-section of equity returns to estimate a rich affine model of equity prices, dividends, returns and their dynamics.. The new term structure data generated by our model represent new empirical moments that can be used to guide and evaluate asset pricing models.
Fixed Income
Systematic Investing in Emerging Market Debt
March 4, 2020
We extend the analysis of systematic investment approaches to emerging market (EM) fixed income. We find that systematic exposures linked to carry, defensive, momentum and valuation themes are well compensated and lowly correlated in EM markets, and that a systematic approach to EM debt may be a powerful diversifier.
Asset Allocation
Enhanced Portfolio Optimization
March 2, 2020
We show how to identify the portfolios that cause problems in standard mean-variance optimization (MVO) and develop an enhanced portfolio optimization (EPO) method that addresses the problems. Applying EPO on several realistic datasets, we find significant gains relative to standard benchmarks.
Alternative Investing
Market Crashes and Merger Completions
February 24, 2020
A primary concern in mergers and acquisitions is the risk that the deal may be cancelled before completion. We document that this "interim risk" varies asymmetrically with the aggregate stock market: When the market falls sharply, cash deals are more than twice as likely to be cancelled.
Portfolio Risk and Performance
Chasing Your Own Tail (Risk), Revisited
November 19, 2019
As investors turn to addressing the risk of a severely declining market, we summarize five approaches to building a more resilient portfolio.
Factor/Style Investing
More Superstar Investors: Francisco Garcia Parames
May 28, 2019
We examine the track record of Spanish investor Francisco Garcia Parames, leading Portfolio Manager of Bestinver Asset Management, and find that a large part of his success is attributable to patient exposure to well-rewarded factor premia.
Factor/Style Investing
More Superstar Investors: Neil Woodford and Terry Smith
May 28, 2019
We examine the track records of two renowned U.K. fund managers: Neil Woodford and Terry Smith and find that a large part of their long-term success is due to patient exposure to well-rewarded factor premia.