IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v104y2021ics0264999321001474.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alpha decay and Sharpe ratio: Two measures of investor performance

Author

Listed:
  • Guo, Ming
  • Ou-Yang, Hui

Abstract

We study alpha decay and the Sharpe ratio as two separate measures of investor performance in an infinite-horizon continuous-time model. In our model, an investor observes a mean-reverting signal which forecasts future stock returns but cannot be predicted by historical returns. This signal represents the investor's alpha, while its mean-reverting speed represents alpha decay. Overall, alpha decay and the Sharpe ratio have significantly different impacts on the investor's gross and net performance and his trading activities. Thus, we show that the relationship between an investor's performance and trading activities can be either positive or negative, which is consistent with the empirical evidence. Our model suggests measuring the performance of fund managers by both alpha decay and the Sharpe ratio in practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Guo, Ming & Ou-Yang, Hui, 2021. "Alpha decay and Sharpe ratio: Two measures of investor performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:104:y:2021:i:c:s0264999321001474
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999321001474
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105558?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Back, Kerry, 2010. "Asset Pricing and Portfolio Choice Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195380613, Decembrie.
    2. John Y. Campbell & Yeung Lewis Chanb & M. Viceira, 2013. "A multivariate model of strategic asset allocation," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part II, chapter 39, pages 809-848, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Andrew W. Lo & Harry Mamaysky & Jiang Wang, 2004. "Asset Prices and Trading Volume under Fixed Transactions Costs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(5), pages 1054-1090, October.
    4. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock-Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1703, August.
    5. Xuemin (Sterling) Yan & Zhe Zhang, 2009. "Institutional Investors and Equity Returns: Are Short-term Institutions Better Informed?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 893-924, February.
    6. Bergstrom, A.R., 1984. "Continuous time stochastic models and issues of aggregation over time," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 20, pages 1145-1212, Elsevier.
    7. Liu, Jun & Peleg, Ehud & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2010. "Information, Expected Utility, and Portfolio Choice," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(5), pages 1221-1251, October.
    8. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    9. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock‐Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1695, August.
    10. Gennotte, Gerard, 1986. "Optimal Portfolio Choice under Incomplete Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(3), pages 733-746, July.
    11. Andrew W. Lo, 2010. "Hedge Funds: An Analytic Perspective Updated Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9177.
    12. Nicolae Gârleanu & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2013. "Dynamic Trading with Predictable Returns and Transaction Costs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(6), pages 2309-2340, December.
    13. Nielsen, Lars Tyge & Vassalou, Maria, 2004. "Sharpe Ratios and Alphas in Continuous Time," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 103-114, March.
    14. Dahlquist, Magnus & Engström, Stefan & Söderlind, Paul, 2000. "Performance and Characteristics of Swedish Mutual Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 409-423, September.
    15. Branger, Nicole & Larsen, Linda Sandris & Munk, Claus, 2013. "Robust portfolio choice with ambiguity and learning about return predictability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1397-1411.
    16. Elton, Edwin J, et al, 1993. "Efficiency with Costly Information: A Reinterpretation of Evidence from Managed Portfolios," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22.
    17. Kandel, Shmuel & Stambaugh, Robert F, 1996. "On the Predictability of Stock Returns: An Asset-Allocation Perspective," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 385-424, June.
    18. Honda, Toshiki, 2003. "Optimal portfolio choice for unobservable and regime-switching mean returns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 45-78, October.
    19. Vayanos, Dimitri, 1998. "Transaction Costs and Asset Prices: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 1-58.
    20. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    21. Yihong Xia, 2001. "Learning about Predictability: The Effects of Parameter Uncertainty on Dynamic Asset Allocation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 205-246, February.
    22. Balduzzi, Pierluigi & Lynch, Anthony W., 1999. "Transaction costs and predictability: some utility cost calculations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 47-78, April.
    23. George M. Constantinides, 2005. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Transaction Costs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 7, pages 207-227, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    24. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    25. M. H. A. Davis & A. R. Norman, 1990. "Portfolio Selection with Transaction Costs," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 676-713, November.
    26. Ming Guo & Hui Ou-Yang, 2015. "Feedback Trading between Fundamental and Nonfundamental Information," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(1), pages 247-296.
    27. Heaton, John & Lucas, Deborah J, 1996. "Evaluating the Effects of Incomplete Markets on Risk Sharing and Asset Pricing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(3), pages 443-487, June.
    28. Huang, Ming, 2003. "Liquidity shocks and equilibrium liquidity premia," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 104-129, March.
    29. Dumas, Bernard & Luciano, Elisa, 1991. "An Exact Solution to a Dynamic Portfolio Choice Problem under Transactions Costs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 577-595, June.
    30. Jonathan Ingersoll & Ivo Welch, 2007. "Portfolio Performance Manipulation and Manipulation-proof Performance Measures," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1503-1546, 2007 17.
    31. Anthony W. Lynch & Sinan Tan, 2011. "Explaining the Magnitude of Liquidity Premia: The Roles of Return Predictability, Wealth Shocks, and State‐Dependent Transaction Costs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(4), pages 1329-1368, August.
    32. Merton, Robert C, 1973. "An Intertemporal Capital Asset Pricing Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(5), pages 867-887, September.
    33. John Y. Campbell & Albert S. Kyle, 1993. "Smart Money, Noise Trading and Stock Price Behaviour," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 1-34.
    34. Duffie, Darrell & Sun, Tong-sheng, 1990. "Transactions costs and portfolio choice in a discrete-continuous-time setting," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 35-51, February.
    35. Ralf Korn, 1998. "Portfolio optimisation with strictly positive transaction costs and impulse control," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 85-114.
    36. Kim, Tong Suk & Omberg, Edward, 1996. "Dynamic Nonmyopic Portfolio Behavior," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 141-161.
    37. Evan W. Anderson & Ai-Ru (Meg) Cheng, 2016. "Robust Bayesian Portfolio Choices," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(5), pages 1330-1375.
    38. Magill, Michael J. P. & Constantinides, George M., 1976. "Portfolio selection with transactions costs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 245-263, October.
    39. Campani, Carlos Heitor & Garcia, René & Lewin, Marcelo, 2021. "Optimal portfolio strategies in the presence of regimes in asset returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    40. Nicholas Barberis, 2000. "Investing for the Long Run when Returns Are Predictable," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 225-264, February.
    41. Anthony W. Lynch & Pierluigi Balduzzi, 2000. "Predictability and Transaction Costs: The Impact on Rebalancing Rules and Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 2285-2309, October.
    42. Hong Liu & Mark Loewenstein, 2002. "Optimal Portfolio Selection with Transaction Costs and Finite Horizons," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 805-835.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2013. "Market Liquidity—Theory and Empirical Evidence ," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1289-1361, Elsevier.
    2. Buss, Adrian & Uppal, Raman & Vilkov, Grigory, 2015. "Asset prices in general equilibrium with recursive utility and illiquidity induced by transactions costs," SAFE Working Paper Series 41, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2015.
    3. Johannes Muhle-Karbe & Max Reppen & H. Mete Soner, 2016. "A Primer on Portfolio Choice with Small Transaction Costs," Papers 1612.01302, arXiv.org, revised May 2017.
    4. John Y. Campbell, 2000. "Asset Pricing at the Millennium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1515-1567, August.
    5. Sergey Isaenko & Rui Zhong, 2015. "Liquidity premium in the presence of stock market crises and background risk," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 79-90, January.
    6. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2012. "Market liquidity - theory and empirical evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119044, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Albert Altarovici & Max Reppen & H. Mete Soner, 2016. "Optimal Consumption and Investment with Fixed and Proportional Transaction Costs," Papers 1610.03958, arXiv.org.
    8. Adrian Buss & Bernard Dumas, 2019. "The Dynamic Properties of Financial‐Market Equilibrium with Trading Fees," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(2), pages 795-844, April.
    9. Yingshan Chen & Min Dai & Luis Goncalves-Pinto & Jing Xu & Cheng Yan, 2021. "Incomplete Information and the Liquidity Premium Puzzle," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5703-5729, September.
    10. Andrew W. Lo & Harry Mamaysky & Jiang Wang, 2004. "Asset Prices and Trading Volume under Fixed Transactions Costs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(5), pages 1054-1090, October.
    11. Martin Herdegen & Johannes Muhle-Karbe & Dylan Possamaï, 2021. "Equilibrium asset pricing with transaction costs," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 231-275, April.
    12. Albert Altarovici & Johannes Muhle-Karbe & Halil Soner, 2015. "Asymptotics for fixed transaction costs," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 363-414, April.
    13. Guidolin, Massimo & Timmermann, Allan, 2007. "Asset allocation under multivariate regime switching," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 3503-3544, November.
    14. Martin Herdegen & Johannes Muhle-Karbe, 2018. "Stability of Radner equilibria with respect to small frictions," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 443-502, April.
    15. Albuquerque, Rui & Song, Shiyun & Yao, Chen, 2017. "The Price Effects of Liquidity Shocks: A Study of SEC’s Tick-Size Experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 12486, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Korniotis, George & Bonaparte, Yosef & Kumar, Alok, 2020. "Income Risk and Stock Market Entry/Exit Decisions," CEPR Discussion Papers 15370, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Isaenko, Sergei, 2010. "Portfolio choice under transitory price impact," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2375-2389, November.
    18. Nicolae Gârleanu & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2013. "Dynamic Trading with Predictable Returns and Transaction Costs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(6), pages 2309-2340, December.
    19. Florackis, Chris & Gregoriou, Andros & Kostakis, Alexandros, 2011. "Trading frequency and asset pricing on the London Stock Exchange: Evidence from a new price impact ratio," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3335-3350.
    20. Collin-Dufresne, Pierre & Daniel, Kent & Sağlam, Mehmet, 2020. "Liquidity regimes and optimal dynamic asset allocation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 379-406.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investor performance; The Sharpe ratio; Alpha decay; Trading activities; Transaction costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:104:y:2021:i:c:s0264999321001474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.