IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/revfec/v22y2013i4p180-186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The high returns to low volatility stocks are actually a premium on high quality firms

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Walkshäusl

Abstract

Recent empirical research shows that low volatility stocks outperform high volatility stocks around the world. This study documents that the volatility effect is associated with the quality of the firm using a large sample of international stocks. First, adding a quality factor to the Fama–French model contributes to the explanation of the volatility effect. Furthermore, the negative volatility–return relation is shown to be stronger and significant only among high quality firms which are profitable and have stable cash flows. Second, a fundamental investment strategy that goes long high quality firms and short low quality firms performs like a volatility strategy and cannot be explained by common asset pricing models. However, a low–high volatility factor adds to the explanation of the return difference between high and low quality stocks as volatility and quality strategies have a common component.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Walkshäusl, 2013. "The high returns to low volatility stocks are actually a premium on high quality firms," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(4), pages 180-186, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:revfec:v:22:y:2013:i:4:p:180-186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rfe.2013.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rfe.2013.06.001
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rfe.2013.06.001?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Y. Campbell & Martin Lettau & Burton G. Malkiel & Yexiao Xu, 2001. "Have Individual Stocks Become More Volatile? An Empirical Exploration of Idiosyncratic Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 1-43, February.
    2. Bali, Turan G. & Cakici, Nusret & Whitelaw, Robert F., 2011. "Maxing out: Stocks as lotteries and the cross-section of expected returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 427-446, February.
    3. Bali, Turan G. & Cakici, Nusret, 2008. "Idiosyncratic Volatility and the Cross Section of Expected Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 29-58, March.
    4. Steven X. Wei & Chu Zhang, 2006. "Why Did Individual Stocks Become More Volatile?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(1), pages 259-292, January.
    5. Bali, Turan G. & Demirtas, K. Ozgur & Tehranian, Hassan, 2008. "Aggregate Earnings, Firm-Level Earnings, and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 657-684, September.
    6. Paul J. Irvine & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2009. "Idiosyncratic Return Volatility, Cash Flows, and Product Market Competition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1149-1177, March.
    7. Huang, Alan Guoming, 2009. "The cross section of cashflow volatility and expected stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 409-429, June.
    8. 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.
    9. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2006. "Profitability, investment and average returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 491-518, December.
    10. Paul J. Irvine & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2009. "Idiosyncratic Return Volatility, Cash Flows, and Product Market Competition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1149-1177.
    11. Blitz, D.C. & van Vliet, P., 2007. "The Volatility Effect: Lower Risk without Lower Return," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-044-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    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. Kaya, Orçun & Mostowfi, Mehdi, 2022. "Low-volatility strategies for highly liquid cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).

    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. Walkshäusl, Christian, 2013. "The high returns to low volatility stocks are actually a premium on high quality firms," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 180-186.
    2. Walkshäusl, Christian, 2014. "The MAX effect: European evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1-10.
    3. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Wu, Ji, 2013. "Is there a volatility effect in the Hong Kong stock market?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 119-135.
    4. Mostafa Monzur Hasan & Ahsan Habib, 2019. "Social capital and idiosyncratic return volatility," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(1), pages 3-31, February.
    5. Nam, Kiseok & Khaksari, Shahriar & Kang, Moonsoo, 2017. "Trend in aggregate idiosyncratic volatility," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 11-28.
    6. Ana Isabel Ramos Domingues & António de Melo da Costa Cerqueira & Elísio Fernando Moreira Brandão, 2016. "Idiosyncratic Volatility and Earnings Quality: Evidence from United Kingdom," FEP Working Papers 579, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    7. Chue, Timothy K. & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Mian, G. Mujtaba, 2019. "Aggregate investor sentiment and stock return synchronicity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    8. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, September.
    9. Patrick J. Kelly, 2014. "Information Efficiency and Firm-Specific Return Variation," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-44.
    10. Kryzanowski, Lawrence & Mohsni, Sana, 2015. "Earnings forecasts and idiosyncratic volatilities," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 107-123.
    11. Erin E. Syron Ferris, 2018. "Dividend taxes and stock volatility," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(2), pages 377-403, April.
    12. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-20.
    13. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 1-20, February.
    14. Rubin, Amir & Smith, Daniel R., 2011. "Comparing different explanations of the volatility trend," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1581-1597, June.
    15. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2017. "Replicating Anomalies," NBER Working Papers 23394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Qadan, Mahmoud, 2019. "Risk appetite, idiosyncratic volatility and expected returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Wu, Ji & Liu, Zhentao, 2013. "Does idiosyncratic volatility matter in emerging markets? Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 137-160.
    18. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Habib, Ahsan, 2017. "Firm life cycle and idiosyncratic volatility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 164-175.
    19. Bali, Turan G. & Cakici, Nusret & Levy, Haim, 2008. "A model-independent measure of aggregate idiosyncratic risk," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 878-896, December.
    20. Sina Ehsani & Donald Lien, 2015. "Effects of Passive Intensity on Aggregate Price Dynamics," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 50(3), pages 363-391, August.

    More about this item

    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:wly:revfec:v:22:y:2013:i:4:p:180-186. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1873-5924 .

    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.