IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/glofin/v32y2017icp128-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emerging markets: Is the trend still your friend?

Author

Listed:
  • Conover, C. Mitchell
  • Jensen, Gerald R.
  • Johnson, Robert R.
  • Szakmary, Andrew C.

Abstract

Using an extensive sample consisting of 30 emerging countries and 38years of data, we examine the profitability of two momentum and two trend following strategies. Over the entire sample, we find excess returns that are economically and statistically significant for all four strategies. Furthermore, we show that the significance of the excess returns remains after adjusting for macroeconomic risk factors. In addition, we find that in spite of their relative neglect, trend strategies frequently demonstrate superior performance, compared to momentum strategies. However, contrary to previous research, we do not find that time series momentum strategies outperform cross-sectional momentum strategies. Finally, we show that the effectiveness of the alternative strategies is largely diminished once transactions costs and liberalizations in emerging markets are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Conover, C. Mitchell & Jensen, Gerald R. & Johnson, Robert R. & Szakmary, Andrew C., 2017. "Emerging markets: Is the trend still your friend?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 128-148.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:glofin:v:32:y:2017:i:c:p:128-148
    DOI: 10.1016/j.gfj.2016.05.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044028316300497
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.gfj.2016.05.001?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. Harrison Hong & Terence Lim & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 265-295, February.
    2. van der Hart, Jaap & de Zwart, Gerben & van Dijk, Dick, 2005. "The success of stock selection strategies in emerging markets: Is it risk or behavioral bias?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 238-262, September.
    3. Chang, Eui Jung & Lima, Eduardo Jose Araujo & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2004. "Testing for predictability in emerging equity markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 295-316, September.
    4. Sanjeev Bhojraj, 2006. "Macromomentum: Returns Predictability in International Equity Indices," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(1), pages 429-451, January.
    5. Harvey, Campbell R, 1995. "Predictable Risk and Returns in Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 773-816.
    6. Kortas, Mohamed & L'Her, Jean-Francois & Roberge, Mathieu, 2005. "Country selection of emerging equity markets: benefits from country attribute diversification," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 1-19, April.
    7. de Zwart, Gerben & Markwat, Thijs & Swinkels, Laurens & van Dijk, Dick, 2009. "The economic value of fundamental and technical information in emerging currency markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 581-604, June.
    8. Kent Daniel & David Hirshleifer & Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, 1998. "Investor Psychology and Security Market Under- and Overreactions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(6), pages 1839-1885, December.
    9. Tobias J. Moskowitz & Mark Grinblatt, 1999. "Do Industries Explain Momentum?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1249-1290, August.
    10. Vihang Errunza & Ked Hogan & Mao‐Wei Hung, 1999. "Can the Gains from International Diversification Be Achieved without Trading Abroad?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2075-2107, December.
    11. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2012. "Size, value, and momentum in international stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 457-472.
    12. Laura Andreu & Laurens Swinkels & Liam Tjong-A-Tjoe, 2013. "Can exchange traded funds be used to exploit industry and country momentum?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 127-148, June.
    13. de Groot, Wilma & Pang, Juan & Swinkels, Laurens, 2012. "The cross-section of stock returns in frontier emerging markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 796-818.
    14. K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 1999. "Local Return Factors and Turnover in Emerging Stock Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1439-1464, August.
    15. Bekaert, Geert & Harvey, Campbell R., 2003. "Emerging markets finance," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 3-56, February.
    16. Grinblatt, Mark & Moskowitz, Tobias J., 2004. "Predicting stock price movements from past returns: the role of consistency and tax-loss selling," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 541-579, March.
    17. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1998. "A model of investor sentiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 307-343, September.
    18. Clifford S. Asness & Tobias J. Moskowitz & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2013. "Value and Momentum Everywhere," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 929-985, June.
    19. K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 1998. "International Momentum Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(1), pages 267-284, February.
    20. Hatgioannides, John & Mesomeris, Spyros, 2007. "On the returns generating process and the profitability of trading rules in emerging capital markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 948-973, October.
    21. van der Hart, Jaap & Slagter, Erica & van Dijk, Dick, 2003. "Stock selection strategies in emerging markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 105-132, February.
    22. Moskowitz, Tobias J. & Ooi, Yao Hua & Pedersen, Lasse Heje, 2012. "Time series momentum," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 228-250.
    23. Chan, Louis K C & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Lakonishok, Josef, 1996. "Momentum Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(5), pages 1681-1713, December.
    24. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    25. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    26. Balvers, Ronald J. & Wu, Yangru, 2006. "Momentum and mean reversion across national equity markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 24-48, January.
    27. Brav, Alon & Geczy, Christopher & Gompers, Paul A., 2000. "Is the abnormal return following equity issuances anomalous?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 209-249, May.
    28. Szakmary, Andrew C. & Shen, Qian & Sharma, Subhash C., 2010. "Trend-following trading strategies in commodity futures: A re-examination," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 409-426, February.
    29. Eckbo, B. Espen & Masulis, Ronald W. & Norli, Oyvind, 2000. "Seasoned public offerings: resolution of the 'new issues puzzle'," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 251-291, May.
    30. Kim, Bonghoon & Kenny, Lawrence W., 2007. "Explaining when developing countries liberalize their financial equity markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 387-402, October.
    31. John M. Griffin & Xiuqing Ji & J. Spencer Martin, 2003. "Momentum Investing and Business Cycle Risk: Evidence from Pole to Pole," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2515-2547, December.
    32. Charles M.C. Lee & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 2000. "Price Momentum and Trading Volume," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 2017-2069, October.
    33. Harrison Hong & Jeremy C. Stein, 1999. "A Unified Theory of Underreaction, Momentum Trading, and Overreaction in Asset Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2143-2184, December.
    34. 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.
    35. Geert Bekaert & Campbell Harvey & Christian T. Lundblad, 2003. "Equity market liberalization in emerging markets," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 85(Jul), pages 53-74.
    36. Marshall, Ben R. & Nguyen, Nhut H. & Visaltanachoti, Nuttawat, 2013. "Liquidity measurement in frontier markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-12.
    37. Narasimhan Jegadeesh, 2000. "Long-Term Performance of Seasoned Equity Offerings: Benchmark Errors and Biases in Expectations," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 29(3), Fall.
    38. Novy-Marx, Robert, 2012. "Is momentum really momentum?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 429-453.
    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. Hofmann, Daniel & Keiber, Karl Ludwig & Luczak, Adalbert, 2022. "Up and down together? On the linkage of momentum and reversal," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Grobys, Klaus & Ahmed, Shaker & Sapkota, Niranjan, 2020. "Technical trading rules in the cryptocurrency market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    3. Yamani, Ehab, 2021. "Can technical trading beat the foreign exchange market in times of crisis?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    4. Vo, Xuan Vinh & Truong, Quang Binh, 2018. "Does momentum work? Evidence from Vietnam stock market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 10-15.

    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. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, September.
    2. Martin H. Schmidt, 2017. "Trading strategies based on past returns: evidence from Germany," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 31(2), pages 201-256, May.
    3. van der Hart, Jaap & de Zwart, Gerben & van Dijk, Dick, 2005. "The success of stock selection strategies in emerging markets: Is it risk or behavioral bias?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 238-262, September.
    4. Simarjeet Singh & Nidhi Walia, 2022. "Momentum investing: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 87-113, February.
    5. Daniel, Kent & Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2002. "Investor psychology in capital markets: evidence and policy implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 139-209, January.
    6. Cakici, Nusret & Tang, Yi & Yan, An, 2016. "Do the size, value, and momentum factors drive stock returns in emerging markets?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 179-204.
    7. Gong, Qiang & Liu, Ming & Liu, Qianqiu, 2015. "Momentum is really short-term momentum," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 169-182.
    8. Hong-Yi Chen & Sheng-Syan Chen & Chin-Wen Hsin & Cheng Few Lee, 2020. "Does Revenue Momentum Drive or Ride Earnings or Price Momentum?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 94, pages 3263-3318, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2018. "Equity market momentum: A synthesis of the literature and suggestions for future work," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 291-296.
    10. Goetzmann, William N. & Huang, Simon, 2018. "Momentum in Imperial Russia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 579-591.
    11. Tse, Yiuman, 2015. "Momentum strategies with stock index exchange-traded funds," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 134-148.
    12. Geoffrey Booth, G. & Fung, Hung-Gay & Leung, Wai Kin, 2016. "A risk-return explanation of the momentum-reversal “anomaly”," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 68-77.
    13. Hou, Yang & Meng, Jiayin, 2018. "The momentum effect in the Chinese market and its relationship with the simultaneous and the lagged investor sentiment," MPRA Paper 94838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Israel, Ronen & Moskowitz, Tobias J., 2013. "The role of shorting, firm size, and time on market anomalies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 275-301.
    15. de Groot, Wilma & Pang, Juan & Swinkels, Laurens, 2012. "The cross-section of stock returns in frontier emerging markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 796-818.
    16. Mao, Mike Qinghao & Wei, K.C. John, 2014. "Price and earnings momentum: An explanation using return decomposition," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 332-351.
    17. Jaehyung Choi, 2014. "Maximum drawdown, recovery, and momentum," Papers 1403.8125, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    18. Ding Du & Karen Craft Denning & Xiaobing Zhao, 2014. "Market states and momentum in sector exchange-traded funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(4), pages 223-237, August.
    19. Blanco, Ivan & De Jesus, Miguel & Remesal, Alvaro, 2023. "Overlapping momentum portfolios," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-22.
    20. Naranjo, Andy & Porter, Burt, 2010. "Risk factor and industry effects in the cross-country comovement of momentum returns," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 275-299, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

    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:glofin:v:32:y:2017:i:c:p:128-148. 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/620162 .

    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.