Standard mean-variance analysis is based on the assumption of normal return distributions. However, a growing body of literature suggests that the market oscillates between two different regimes – one with low volatility and the other with high volatility. In such a case, even if the return...

Soccer games create sentiment, which affects stock prices. The World Cups before 2010 provided exploitable abnormal profit which was not exploited, presumably because it was unknown. Just before the 2010 World Cup, the exploitable effect has been discovered and widely cited by practitioners who...

Value-at-Risk (VaR) has become a standard measure for risk management and regulation. In the case of a two-parameter distribution, a common method among practitioners is first to calculate the daily VaR and then to apply it to a longer investment horizon by using the Square Root Rule (SRR). We...

Several empirical studies reveal that holidays generally create positive sentiment in the stock market, whereas negative events, such as wars or disasters, are accompanied by negative sentiment. However, what happens if a negative event occurs on a holiday? In such a case, we expect two...

The current study shows that real estate prices in several countries reveal a significant and persistent seasonality, where the highest rates of return are obtained in the spring and early summer, and the lowest rates of return are obtained in the fall. This seasonality is explained by a joint...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand the peer effect analysis to investments in the stock market, where neither direct competition nor interaction with other investors exists. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 772 subjects dwelling in six countries completed a questionnaire...

Behavioral economic studies reveal that negative sentiment driven by bad mood and anxiety affects investment decisions and may hence affect asset pricing. In this study we examine the effect of aviation disasters on stock prices. We find evidence of a significant negative event effect with an...

In a recently published paper, Edmans, García, and Norli (2007) reveal a strong association between results of soccer games and local stock returns. Inspired by their work, we propose a novel approach to exploit this effect on the aggregate international level with the following three unique...