IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/empfin/v63y2021icp136-163.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk optimizations on basis portfolios: The role of sorting

Author

Listed:
  • Fays, Boris
  • Papageorgiou, Nicolas
  • Lambert, Marie

Abstract

This paper investigates the mean–variance and diversification properties of risk-based strategies executed on style or basis portfolios. We show that the performance of these risk strategies is highly sensitive to the sorting procedure used to form the basis assets. Whereas the extant literature provides mixed support for the outperformance of smart beta strategies based on scientific diversification, our designed strategies outperform both the market model and multifactor model. Our testing framework is based on bootstrapped mean–variance spanning tests and shows valid conclusions when controlling for multiple testing, transaction costs, and luck from random basis portfolio construction rules. Economically, our results are supported by diversification-based properties.

Suggested Citation

  • Fays, Boris & Papageorgiou, Nicolas & Lambert, Marie, 2021. "Risk optimizations on basis portfolios: The role of sorting," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 136-163.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:empfin:v:63:y:2021:i:c:p:136-163
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jempfin.2021.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927539821000487
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jempfin.2021.06.002?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. Ledoit, Olivier & Wolf, Michael, 2004. "A well-conditioned estimator for large-dimensional covariance matrices," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 365-411, February.
    2. Martin Lettau & Sydney C. Ludvigson & Paulo Manoel, 2018. "Characteristics of Mutual Fund Portfolios: Where Are the Value Funds?," NBER Working Papers 25381, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    4. T. Roncalli & G. Weisang, 2016. "Risk parity portfolios with risk factors," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 377-388, March.
    5. Huberman, Gur & Kandel, Shmuel, 1987. "Mean-Variance Spanning," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 873-888, September.
    6. Michael W. Brandt & Pedro Santa-Clara & Rossen Valkanov, 2009. "Parametric Portfolio Policies: Exploiting Characteristics in the Cross-Section of Equity Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3411-3447, September.
    7. Froot, Kenneth & Teo, Melvyn, 2008. "Style Investing and Institutional Investors," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 883-906, December.
    8. Daniel, Kent, et al, 1997. "Measuring Mutual Fund Performance with Characteristic-Based Benchmarks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1035-1058, July.
    9. David Ardia & Kris Boudt & Giang Nguyen, 2018. "Beyond risk-based portfolios: balancing performance and risk contributions in asset allocation," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(8), pages 1249-1259, August.
    10. Raymond Kan & Guofu Zhou, 2012. "Tests of Mean-Variance Spanning," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 13(1), pages 139-187, May.
    11. R. David Mclean & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2016. "Does Academic Research Destroy Stock Return Predictability?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 5-32, February.
    12. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    13. Ledoit, Oliver & Wolf, Michael, 2008. "Robust performance hypothesis testing with the Sharpe ratio," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 850-859, December.
    14. Gibbons, Michael R & Ross, Stephen A & Shanken, Jay, 1989. "A Test of the Efficiency of a Given Portfolio," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(5), pages 1121-1152, September.
    15. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1973. "Estimating the Dependence Structure of Share Prices-Implications for Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(5), pages 1203-1232, December.
    16. Lambert, M. & Hübner, G., 2013. "Comoment risk and stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 191-205.
    17. Halbert White, 2000. "A Reality Check for Data Snooping," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(5), pages 1097-1126, September.
    18. Louis K. C. Chan & Stephen G. Dimmock & Josef Lakonishok, 2009. "Benchmarking Money Manager Performance: Issues and Evidence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(11), pages 4553-4599, November.
    19. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2010. "Luck versus Skill in the Cross‐Section of Mutual Fund Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1915-1947, October.
    20. Cremers, Martijn & Petajisto, Antti & Zitzewitz, Eric, 2013. "Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance Evaluation," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 2(1), pages 1-48, July.
    21. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4688 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Lambert, Marie & Fays, Boris & Hübner, Georges, 2020. "Factoring characteristics into returns: A clinical study on the SMB and HML portfolio construction methods," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    23. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    24. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1995. "Size and Book-to-Market Factors in Earnings and Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 131-155, March.
    25. Best, Michael J & Grauer, Robert R, 1991. "On the Sensitivity of Mean-Variance-Efficient Portfolios to Changes in Asset Means: Some Analytical and Computational Results," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 315-342.
    26. Robert Novy-Marx & Mihail Velikov, 2016. "A Taxonomy of Anomalies and Their Trading Costs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 104-147.
    27. Jonathan B. Berk, 2000. "Sorting Out Sorts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 407-427, February.
    28. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    29. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    30. Daniel, Kent & Titman, Sheridan, 2012. "Testing Factor-Model Explanations of Market Anomalies," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 1(1), pages 103-139, January.
    31. Chen, Hsiu-Lang & De Bondt, Werner, 2004. "Style momentum within the S&P-500 index," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 483-507, September.
    32. Scott Willenbrock, 2011. "Diversification Return, Portfolio Rebalancing, and the Commodity Return Puzzle," Papers 1109.1256, arXiv.org.
    33. Joel Hasbrouck, 2009. "Trading Costs and Returns for U.S. Equities: Estimating Effective Costs from Daily Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(3), pages 1445-1477, June.
    34. Roll, Richard, 1984. "A Simple Implicit Measure of the Effective Bid-Ask Spread in an Efficient Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1127-1139, September.
    35. Michael J. Best & Robert R. Grauer, 1991. "Sensitivity Analysis for Mean-Variance Portfolio Problems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(8), pages 980-989, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bevanda Lea-Marija & Zaimović Azra & Arnaut-Berilo Almira, 2021. "Performance of Value and Growth Stocks in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 12(2), pages 268-283, December.
    2. Wolfgang Karl Hardle & Yegor Klochkov & Alla Petukhina & Nikita Zhivotovskiy, 2022. "Robustifying Markowitz," Papers 2212.13996, arXiv.org.

    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. Harvey, Campbell R. & Liu, Yan, 2021. "Lucky factors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 413-435.
    2. Marie Brière & Ariane Szafarz, 2021. "When it rains, it pours: Multifactor asset management in good and bad times," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 641-669, September.
    3. DeMiguel, Victor & Martin-Utrera, Alberto & Nogales, Francisco J. & Uppal, Raman, 2017. "A Portfolio Perspective on the Multitude of Firm Characteristics," CEPR Discussion Papers 12417, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, September.
    5. Huber, Daniel & Jacobs, Heiko & Müller, Sebastian & Preissler, Fabian, 2023. "International factor models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    6. Dahlquist, Magnus & Odegaard, Bernt Arne, 2018. "A Review of Norges Bank's Active Management of the Government Pension Fund Global," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2018/1, University of Stavanger.
    7. Zaremba, Adam & Szyszka, Adam & Karathanasopoulos, Andreas & Mikutowski, Mateusz, 2021. "Herding for profits: Market breadth and the cross-section of global equity returns," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 348-364.
    8. Lambert, Marie & Fays, Boris & Hübner, Georges, 2020. "Factoring characteristics into returns: A clinical study on the SMB and HML portfolio construction methods," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    9. Söhnke M. Bartram & Harald Lohre & Peter F. Pope & Ananthalakshmi Ranganathan, 2021. "Navigating the factor zoo around the world: an institutional investor perspective," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(5), pages 655-703, July.
    10. Barroso, Pedro & Detzel, Andrew, 2021. "Do limits to arbitrage explain the benefits of volatility-managed portfolios?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(3), pages 744-767.
    11. Behr, Patrick & Guettler, Andre & Truebenbach, Fabian, 2012. "Using industry momentum to improve portfolio performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1414-1423.
    12. Mateus, Irina B. & Mateus, Cesario & Todorovic, Natasa, 2019. "Review of new trends in the literature on factor models and mutual fund performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 344-354.
    13. Mason, Andrew & Agyei-Ampomah, Sam & Skinner, Frank, 2016. "Realism, skill, and incentives: Current and future trends in investment management and investment performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 31-40.
    14. Anton Astakhov & Tomas Havranek & Jiri Novak, 2019. "Firm Size And Stock Returns: A Quantitative Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 1463-1492, December.
    15. Arvanitis, Stelios & Scaillet, Olivier & Topaloglou, Nikolas, 2020. "Spanning analysis of stock market anomalies under prospect stochastic dominance," Working Papers unige:134101, University of Geneva, Geneva School of Economics and Management.
    16. Liu, Weiyi & Liu, Yangyi & Luo, Ronghua & Ding, Yue, 2021. "Ability parity model for optimal fund allocation: Evidence from China's mutual fund markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    17. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2017. "International tests of a five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 441-463.
    18. Hansen, Erwin, 2022. "Economic evaluation of asset pricing models under predictability," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 50-66.
    19. Pätäri, Eero & Ahmed, Sheraz & Luukka, Pasi & Yeomans, Julian Scott, 2023. "Can monthly-return rank order reveal a hidden dimension of momentum? The post-cost evidence from the U.S. stock markets," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Alles Rodrigues, Alexandre & Casalin, Fabrizio, 2022. "Factor investing in Brazil: Diversifying across factor tilts and allocation strategies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    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:empfin:v:63:y:2021:i:c:p:136-163. 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/jempfin .

    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.