α (“Alpha”) has symbolic importance on the investments side of finance. That is, a fundamental pillar of modern finance theory is the risk-return relation, and traditionally alpha is taken to represent the degree of “mispricing” in asset returns. But, such an interpretation is not...

Unconditional pricing models fail to support a positive risk–return trade-off. When excess market return is negative an inverse relationship between the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) beta and equal-weighted and value-weighted portfolio return is observed. To accommodate market...