Prior research finds expected returns decrease in firm-level total asset growth. This study shows that external growth, measured as asset growth raised from capital markets, has stronger power than total asset growth predicting the cross section of average returns. External growth subsumes the...

Hundreds of papers and hundreds of factors attempt to explain the cross-section of expected returns. Given this extensive data mining, it does not make any economic or statistical sense to use the usual significance criteria for a newly discovered factor, e.g., a t-ratio greater than 2.0....

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...

U.S. stocks' response to inflation surprises is, on average, robustly negative. Stocks' response to positive inflation surprises shows much more pronounced time-series variability than their response to negative inflation surprises. In our sample, stocks react significantly to positive inflation...

The low (high) abnormal returns of stocks with high (low) beta - the beta anomaly - is one of the most persistent anomalies in empirical asset pricing research. This paper demonstrates that investors' demand for lottery-like stocks is an important driver of the beta anomaly. The beta anomaly is...

The distance between short- and long-run moving averages of prices (MAD) predicts future equity returns in the cross-section. Annualized value-weighted alphas from the accompanying hedge portfolios are around 9%, and the predictability goes beyond momentum, 52-week highs, profitability, and...

We develop a four-factor model intended to capture size, value, and credit rating transition patterns in excess returns for a panel of predominantly mid- and large-cap entities. Using credit transition matrices and rating histories from 48 US issuers, we provide evidence to support a...

A growing body of literature analyses the impact of news on companies' equity prices. We add to this literature by showing that the transmission channel of news to prices differs across sectors. First, we disentangle sectoral equity prices into components of expected future earnings and equity...

We extend Merton’s 1976 asset return analysis which relied on intraday trade data to estimate volatility by introducing drift estimation and equity premium dynamics leading to predictability of short run daily returns under appropriate conditions. We find empirical support for the...

Motivated by existing evidence of a preference among investors for stocks with high maximum daily returns, we document that lottery-like payoffs measured by maximum daily returns are almost entirely idiosyncratic. Firm-level cross-sectional regressions and portfolio-sort analyses prove that...