The low-volatility anomaly is often attributed to limits to arbitrage, such as leverage, short-selling and benchmark constraints. One would therefore expect hedge funds, which are typically not hindered by these constraints, to be the smart money that is able to benefit from the anomaly. This...

Low-risk stocks exhibit higher returns than predicted by established asset pricing models, but this anomaly seems to be explained by the new Fama-French five-factor model, which includes a profitability factor. We argue that this conclusion is premature given the lack of empirical evidence for a...

We propose a practical investment framework for dynamic asset allocation across different economic regimes, which we illustrate using a sample of U.S. data from 1948 to 2007. We identify four regimes in the economic cycle and find that these regimes capture pronounced time-variation in the risk...

Theoretical models, such as the CAPM, predict a positive relation between risk and return, but the empirical evidence paints a mixed picture. Positive, flat and negative relations have been reported in various empirical studies. In this paper we reconcile these seemingly conflicting results by...

We show that the performance of a fundamental index with annual rebalancing, as proposed by Arnott, Hsu and Moore (2005), can be highly sensitive to the subjective choice of when to rebalance. For the year 2009, for example, we find that a fundamental index rebalanced every March outperformed...

In this study we evaluate the performance of actively managed equity mutual funds against a set of passively managed index funds. We find that the return spread between the best performing actively managed funds and a factor-mimicking portfolio of passive funds is positive and as large as 3 to 5...

We explore the cross-section of factor returns using a sample of 150+ equity factors. Most factors exhibit a positive premium and a negative market beta in the long run. Factor themes with a clear positive beta, in particular low leverage and size, have no alpha after controlling for this beta...