IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jfnres/v44y2021i3p641-669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When it rains, it pours: Multifactor asset management in good and bad times

Author

Listed:
  • Marie Brière
  • Ariane Szafarz

Abstract

We examine the profitability of multifactor portfolios on the US stock market. Using passive sector investing as the benchmark, we assess the performances of factor‐based asset management strategies in good and bad times. When short selling is unrestricted, factor investing outperforms sector investing in all respects. For long‐only portfolios, our results reveal a trade‐off between the risk premia associated with factors and the diversification potential of sectors. Multifactor investing tends to be more profitable than the benchmark during good times but less attractive during bad times, when diversification is needed the most.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfnres:v:44:y:2021:i:3:p:641-669
    DOI: 10.1111/jfir.12257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfir.12257
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jfir.12257?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Franke, Benedikt & Müller, Sebastian & Müller, Sonja, 2017. "The q-factors and expected bond returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 19-35.
    2. Marie Brière & Charles-Albert Lehalle & Tamara Nefedova & Amine Raboun, 2020. "Stock Market Liquidity and the Trading Costs of Asset Pricing Anomalies," Post-Print hal-04283720, HAL.
    3. Tola, Vincenzo & Lillo, Fabrizio & Gallegati, Mauro & Mantegna, Rosario N., 2008. "Cluster analysis for portfolio optimization," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 235-258, January.
    4. Brière, Marie & Chapelle, Ariane & Szafarz, Ariane, 2012. "No contagion, only globalization and flight to quality," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1729-1744.
    5. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    6. Mehra, Rajnish & Prescott, Edward C., 1985. "The equity premium: A puzzle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-161, March.
    7. Geert Bekaert & Michael Ehrmann & Marcel Fratzscher & Arnaud Mehl, 2014. "The Global Crisis and Equity Market Contagion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(6), pages 2597-2649, December.
    8. Edelen, Roger M. & Ince, Ozgur S. & Kadlec, Gregory B., 2016. "Institutional investors and stock return anomalies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 472-488.
    9. Michael C. Jensen, 1968. "The Performance Of Mutual Funds In The Period 1945–1964," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 389-416, May.
    10. Hong, Harrison & Torous, Walter & Valkanov, Rossen, 2007. "Do industries lead stock markets?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 367-396, February.
    11. Basak, Gopal & Jagannathan, Ravi & Sun, Guoqiang, 2002. "A direct test for the mean variance efficiency of a portfolio," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(7-8), pages 1195-1215, July.
    12. Michael W. Brandt & Amit Goyal & Pedro Santa-Clara & Jonathan R. Stroud, 2005. "A Simulation Approach to Dynamic Portfolio Choice with an Application to Learning About Return Predictability," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 831-873.
    13. Novy-Marx, Robert, 2013. "The other side of value: The gross profitability premium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-28.
    14. 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.
    15. Oscar Bernal Diaz & Astrid Herinckx & Ariane Szafarz, 2014. "Which short-selling regulation is the least damaging to market efficiency? Evidence from Europe," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 37, pages 244-256, March.
    16. Victor DeMiguel & Francisco J. Nogales & Raman Uppal, 2014. "Stock Return Serial Dependence and Out-of-Sample Portfolio Performance," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(4), pages 1031-1073.
    17. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2015. "Editor's Choice Digesting Anomalies: An Investment Approach," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 650-705.
    18. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    19. Berk, Jonathan B. & van Binsbergen, Jules H., 2016. "Assessing asset pricing models using revealed preference," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 1-23.
    20. Robert Novy-Marx & Mihail Velikov, 2016. "A Taxonomy of Anomalies and Their Trading Costs," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 104-147.
    21. Jonathan Ingersoll & Ivo Welch, 2007. "Portfolio Performance Manipulation and Manipulation-proof Performance Measures," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1503-1546, 2007 17.
    22. Meyers, Stephen L, 1973. "A Re-Examination of Market and Industry Factors in Stock Price Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(3), pages 695-705, June.
    23. Ehling, Paul & Ramos, Sofia B., 2006. "Geographic versus industry diversification: Constraints matter," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(4-5), pages 396-416, October.
    24. Arturo Bris & William N. Goetzmann & Ning Zhu, 2007. "Efficiency and the Bear: Short Sales and Markets Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1029-1079, June.
    25. Roll, Richard, 1992. "Industrial Structure and the Comparative Behavior of International Stock Market Indices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 3-41, March.
    26. Cheol S. Eun & Sandy Lai & Frans A. de Roon & Zhe Zhang, 2010. "International Diversification with Factor Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(9), pages 1500-1518, September.
    27. Liu, Edith X., 2016. "Portfolio Diversification and International Corporate Bonds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 959-983, June.
    28. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    29. Bollerslev, Tim & Gibson, Michael & Zhou, Hao, 2011. "Dynamic estimation of volatility risk premia and investor risk aversion from option-implied and realized volatilities," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 160(1), pages 235-245, January.
    30. Martin, John D & Klemkosky, Robert C, 1976. "The Effect of Homogeneous Stock Groupings on Portfolio Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(3), pages 339-349, July.
    31. Gollier, Christian & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 2002. "Horizon Length and Portfolio Risk," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 195-212, May.
    32. 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.
    33. Marie Briere & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "Factor Investing: The Rocky Road from Long-Only to Long-Short," Working Papers CEB 17-013, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    34. Christoffersen, Peter & Langlois, Hugues, 2013. "The Joint Dynamics of Equity Market Factors," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(5), pages 1371-1404, October.
    35. De Moor, Lieven & Sercu, Piet, 2011. "Country versus sector factors in equity returns: The roles of non-unit exposures," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 64-77, January.
    36. Li, Yuming, 2018. "Investment and profitability versus value and momentum: The price of residual risk," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-10.
    37. Lesmond, David A. & Schill, Michael J. & Zhou, Chunsheng, 2004. "The illusory nature of momentum profits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 349-380, February.
    38. Marie Briere & Ariane Szafarz, 2018. "Factors and Sectors in Asset Allocation: Stronger Together?," Working Papers CEB 18-016, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    39. Jones, Charles M. & Lamont, Owen A., 2002. "Short-sale constraints and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 207-239.
    40. 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.
    41. Frazzini, Andrea & Pedersen, Lasse Heje, 2014. "Betting against beta," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 1-25.
    42. Barroso, Pedro & Santa-Clara, Pedro, 2015. "Momentum has its moments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 111-120.
    43. Marie Brière & Bastien Drut & Valérie Mignon & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2013. "Is the Market Portfolio Efficient? A New Test of Mean-Variance Efficiency when all Assets are Risky," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 34(1), pages 7-41.
    44. Kandel, Shmuel & McCulloch, Robert & Stambaugh, Robert F, 1995. "Bayesian Inference and Portfolio Efficiency," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-53.
    45. M. Vermorken & A. Szafarz & H. Pirotte, 2010. "Sector classification through non-Gaussian similarity," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(11), pages 861-878.
    46. Bekaert, Geert & Hoerova, Marie, 2016. "What do asset prices have to say about risk appetite and uncertainty?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 103-118.
    47. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9297 is not listed on IDEAS
    48. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2008. "Dissecting Anomalies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1653-1678, August.
    49. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    50. 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.
    51. Piet Sercu & Rosanne Vanpée, 2008. "Estimating the Costs of International Equity Investments," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(4), pages 587-634.
    52. Joseph M. Marks & Chenguang Shang, 2019. "Factor Crowding And Liquidity Exhaustion," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 42(1), pages 147-180, March.
    53. 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.
    54. Ferson, Wayne E & Harvey, Campbell R, 1991. "The Variation of Economic Risk Premiums," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 385-415, April.
    55. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    56. Harvey, Campbell R. & Zhou, Guofu, 1990. "Bayesian inference in asset pricing tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 221-254, August.
    57. David Hirshleifer, 2001. "Investor Psychology and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1533-1597, August.
    58. Ang, Andrew, 2014. "Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199959327, Decembrie.
    59. Robert A. Korajczyk & Ronnie Sadka, 2004. "Are Momentum Profits Robust to Trading Costs?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1039-1082, June.
    60. 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.
    61. Yusif Simaan, 1997. "Estimation Risk in Portfolio Selection: The Mean Variance Model Versus the Mean Absolute Deviation Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(10), pages 1437-1446, October.
    62. Sayili, Koray & Yilmaz, Gokhan & Dyer, Douglas & Küllü, A. Melih, 2017. "Style investing and firm innovation," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 17-29.
    63. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2005. "On the Industry Concentration of Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1983-2011, August.
    64. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7746 is not listed on IDEAS
    65. Lanfear, Matthew G. & Lioui, Abraham & Siebert, Mark G., 2019. "Market anomalies and disaster risk: Evidence from extreme weather events," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    66. Jobson, J D & Korkie, Bob M, 1981. "Performance Hypothesis Testing with the Sharpe and Treynor Measures," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(4), pages 889-908, September.
    67. Marie Brière & Bastien Drut & Valérie Mignon & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2013. "Is the Market Portfolio Efficient? A New Test of Mean-Variance Efficiency when all Assets are Risky," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 34(1), pages 7-41.
    68. Campbell R. Harvey & Akhtar Siddique, 2000. "Conditional Skewness in Asset Pricing Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1263-1295, June.
    69. Kadan, Ohad & Liu, Fang, 2014. "Performance evaluation with high moments and disaster risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 131-155.
    70. 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.
    71. Wang, Zhenyu, 1998. "Efficiency loss and constraints on portfolio holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 359-375, June.
    72. 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.
    73. Heston, Steven L. & Rouwenhorst, K. Geert, 1994. "Does industrial structure explain the benefits of international diversification?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 3-27, August.
    74. Stefano DellaVigna & Joshua M. Pollet, 2007. "Demographics and Industry Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1667-1702, December.
    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. Rehman, Mobeen Ur & Vo, Xuan Vinh & McIver, Ron & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2022. "Sensitivity of US sectoral returns to energy commodities under different investment horizons and market conditions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Wolfgang Bessler & Georgi Taushanov & Dominik Wolff, 2021. "Factor investing and asset allocation strategies: a comparison of factor versus sector optimization," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(6), pages 488-506, October.

    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. Marie Briere & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "Factor Investing: The Rocky Road from Long-Only to Long-Short," Working Papers CEB 17-013, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Pätäri, Eero & Karell, Ville & Luukka, Pasi & Yeomans, Julian S, 2018. "Comparison of the multicriteria decision-making methods for equity portfolio selection: The U.S. evidence," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 655-672.
    3. Stephen A. Gorman & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2021. "The ABC’s of the alternative risk premium: academic roots," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(6), pages 405-436, October.
    4. 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.
    5. Cederburg, Scott & O’Doherty, Michael S. & Wang, Feifei & Yan, Xuemin (Sterling), 2020. "On the performance of volatility-managed portfolios," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 95-117.
    6. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, November.
    7. Marie Briere & Ariane Szafarz, 2015. "Factor-Based v. Industry-Based Asset Allocation: The Contest," Working Papers CEB 15-035, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Jonathan Fletcher, 2018. "An Examination of the Benefits of Factor Investing in U.K. Stock Returns," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(4), pages 154-170, April.
    9. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2022. "Salience theory and the cross-section of stock returns: International and further evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 689-725.
    10. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2018. "Betas V characteristics: Do stock characteristics enhance the investment opportunity set in U.K. stock returns?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 114-129.
    11. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2017. "Replicating Anomalies," NBER Working Papers 23394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Marie Briere & Ariane Szafarz, 2018. "Factors and Sectors in Asset Allocation: Stronger Together?," Working Papers CEB 18-016, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    13. Patton, Andrew J. & Weller, Brian M., 2020. "What you see is not what you get: The costs of trading market anomalies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 515-549.
    14. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2023. "Recency bias and the cross-section of international stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Flögel, Volker & Schlag, Christian & Zunft, Claudia, 2022. "Momentum-Managed Equity Factors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    17. Harvey, Campbell R. & Liu, Yan, 2021. "Lucky factors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 413-435.
    18. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2018. "An empirical examination of the diversification benefits of U.K. international equity closed-end funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 23-34.
    19. Long, Huaigang & Zaremba, Adam & Zhou, Wenyu & Bouri, Elie, 2022. "Macroeconomics matter: Leading economic indicators and the cross-section of global stock returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises

    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:bla:jfnres:v:44:y:2021:i:3:p:641-669. 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://edirc.repec.org/data/sfaaaea.html .

    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.