Vineer Bhansali Volume 14, Number 1, 2016 I discuss ten common themes between non-investment related activities that shed practical and useful light on investing. While readers might not be familiar with these particular activities, I believe that combining analogies from any accumulated skill in intrinsically rewarding activities (also known as hobbies), with a disciplined analytical… Read more
Articles
Fundamental Indexation and the Fama-French Three Factor Model: Risk Assimilation or Stock Mispricing?
Xiaofeng Shi, Mike Dempsey and Laurence Irlicht Volume 13, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2015 We confirm the outperformance of fundamental indexation (FI) portfolio returns as due to an exploitation of stock mispricing, while, simultaneously, largely explained in terms of the Fama–French three-factor (FF-3F) model. This leads us to conclude that rather than FI representing a… Read more
Efficiently Combining Multiple Sources of Alpha
Jose Menchero and Jyh-Huei Lee Volume 13, Number 4, 2015 In this article, we examine the question of efficiently combining multiple sources of alpha. We begin with a comparison of the various methods used by practitioners for constructing portfolios that capture a single alpha signal. These methods are broadly categorized as either: (a) simple factor… Read more
Investing in the Asset Growth Anomaly Across the Globe
Xi Li and Rodney N. Sullivan Volume 13, Number 4, 2015 We document the existence of an anomalous asset growth effect globally and find that it comprises some combination of a market mispricing and some pervasive global systematic risk. To support our findings, we explore a battery of tests to include how country-level governance and… Read more
Is U.S. Insider Trading Still Relevant? A Quantitative Portfolio Approach
Carr Bettis, John B. Guerard and Daniel McAuley Volume 13, Number 4, 2015 For 40 years academic literature has reported statistically significant excess returns to selected insiders trading in their firms’ shares, and similar evidence for outsiders who selectively mimic insider trading decisions spans three decades. However, constructing tradable signals leveraging insider trading data is… Read more
Funding Translational Medicine via Public Markets: The Business Development Company
Sandra M. Forman, Andrew W. Lo, Monica Shilling and Grace K. Sweeney Volume 13, Number 4, Fourth Quarter 2015 A business development company (BDC) is a type of closed-end investment fund with certain relaxed requirements that allow it to raise money in the public equity and debt markets, and can be used to fund multiple… Read more
Retirement Readiness and Behavioral Finance
Volume 13, Number 3, (2015) Burton G. Malkiel More than 10,000 Baby Boomers will be reaching retirement age every year from now through 2030. Inadequate savings, high cost and poorly designed retirement plans as well as investor behavioral mistakes combine to level most of them woefully unprepared for retirement. The paper suggests a number of… Read more
Decentralization in Pension Fund Management
Volume 13, Number 3, (2015) David Blake, Alberto Rossi, Allan Timmermann, Ian Tonks and Russ Wermers The past few decades have seen a major shift from centralized to decentralized investment management by pension fund sponsors, despite the increased coordination problems that this brings. Using a unique, proprietary dataset of pension sponsors and managers, we identify… Read more
Augmented Risk Models to Mitigate Factor Alignment Problems
Volume 13, Number 3, (2015) Anureet Saxena and Robert A. Stubbs Construction of optimized portfolios entails a complex interaction between three key entities, namely, the risk factors, the alpha factors and the constraints. The problems that arise due to mutual misalignment between these three entities are collectively referred to as Factor Alignment Problems (FAP). Examples… Read more
Beware of Children Trading
Volume 13, Number 3, (2015) Henk Berkman, Paul D. Koch and P. Joakim Westerholm Guardians behind underaged accounts are successful at picking stocks. These informed traders tend to channel their best trades through the accounts of children, especially when they trade just before major earnings announcements, large price changes, and takeover announcements. Building on these… Read more