This paper tests asset pricing models using individual stocks as test assets, rather than sorted portfolios. Sorted portfolios have the severe limitation that the researcher must know, in advance, reliable predictors of expected returns. We show how to generate appropriately sized tests and...

We propose a new, minimally parameterized way of modeling stock-level covariances as a function of firm characteristics. Our model uses a large number of indicator functions to approximate the surface mapping two firms' characteristics to the correlation of their returns. We show that the method...