Some exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are specifically designed for harvesting factor premiums, such as the size, value, momentum, and low-volatility effects. Other ETFs, however, may implicitly go against these factors. This paper analyzes the factor exposures of U.S. equity ETFs and finds that,...

Stocks with low return volatility have high risk-adjusted returns, which might be driven by low media attention for such stocks. Using news coverage data we formally test whether the ‘attention-grabbing' hypothesis can explain the volatility effect for a sample of international stocks over the...

This paper seeks to uncover the drivers of the idiosyncratic momentum anomaly. We show that: (I) idiosyncratic momentum is a distinct phenomenon that exists next to conventional momentum and is not explained by it; (ii) idiosyncratic momentum is priced in the cross-section of stock returns after...

Fama and French (2015) propose to augment their classic (1993) 3-factor model with profitability and investment factors, resulting in a 5-factor model, which is likely to become the new benchmark for asset pricing studies. Although the 5-factor model exhibits significantly improved explanatory...

Various studies report that investing in “sin stocks”, that is firms which make money from human vice, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling and weapons, has historically delivered significantly positive abnormal returns. This finding has inspired the hypothesis that sin stocks are being...

In this paper we critically examine the novel concept of fundamental indexation. We argue that fundamental indexation is by definition nothing more than an (elegant) value strategy, because the weights of stocks in a fundamental index and a market capitalization-weighted index only differ as a...

In this paper we critically examine the novel concept of fundamental indexation. We argue that fundamental indexation is by definition nothing more than an (elegant) value strategy, because the weights of stocks in a fundamental index and a market capitalization-weighted index only differ as a...

The added value of smart beta indices is known to be explained by exposures to established factor premiums, but does that make these indices suitable for implementing a factor investing strategy? This paper finds that the amount of factor exposure provided by popular smart beta strategies...

The size premium has failed to materialize since its discovery almost forty years ago, but is seemingly revived when controlling for quality-versus-junk exposures. This paper aims to resolve whether there exists a distinct size premium that can be captured in reality. For the US we confirm that...