IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v124y2021ics0378426621000212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Return signal momentum

Author

Listed:
  • Papailias, Fotis
  • Liu, Jiadong
  • Thomakos, Dimitrios D.

Abstract

A new type of momentum based on the signs of past returns is introduced. This momentum is driven primarily by sign dependence, which is positively related to average return and negatively related to return volatility. An empirical application using a universe of commodity and financial futures offers supporting evidence for the existence of such momentum. Investment strategies based on return signal momentum result in higher returns and Sharpe ratios and lower drawdown relative to time series momentum and other benchmark strategies. Overall, return signal momentum can benefit investors as an effective strategy for speculation and hedging.

Suggested Citation

  • Papailias, Fotis & Liu, Jiadong & Thomakos, Dimitrios D., 2021. "Return signal momentum," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:124:y:2021:i:c:s0378426621000212
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2021.106063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426621000212
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2021.106063?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. Menkhoff, Lukas & Sarno, Lucio & Schmeling, Maik & Schrimpf, Andreas, 2012. "Currency momentum strategies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 660-684.
    2. Peter F. Christoffersen & Francis X. Diebold & Roberto S. Mariano & Anthony S. Tay & Yiu Kuen Tse, 2006. "Direction-of-Change Forecasts Based on Conditional Variance, Skewness and Kurtosis Dynamics: International Evidence," PIER Working Paper Archive 06-016, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Ron Bird & Xiaojun Gao & Danny Yeung, 2017. "Time-series and cross-sectional momentum strategies under alternative implementation strategies," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 42(2), pages 230-251, May.
    4. Lo, Andrew W & MacKinlay, A Craig, 1990. "When Are Contrarian Profits Due to Stock Market Overreaction?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 175-205.
    5. Dimitri Vayanos & Paul Woolley, 2013. "An Institutional Theory of Momentum and Reversal," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(5), pages 1087-1145.
    6. 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.
    7. Tobias J. Moskowitz & Mark Grinblatt, 1999. "Do Industries Explain Momentum?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1249-1290, August.
    8. Ben R. Marshall & Nhut H. Nguyen & Nuttawat Visaltanachoti, 2012. "Commodity Liquidity Measurement and Transaction Costs," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 599-638.
    9. Doron Avramov & Tarun Chordia, 2006. "Asset Pricing Models and Financial Market Anomalies," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 1001-1040.
    10. 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.
    11. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1998. "A model of investor sentiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 307-343, September.
    12. Peter F. Christoffersen & Francis X. Diebold, 2006. "Financial Asset Returns, Direction-of-Change Forecasting, and Volatility Dynamics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(8), pages 1273-1287, August.
    13. 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.
    14. Andrew W. Lo, A. Craig MacKinlay, 1988. "Stock Market Prices do not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 41-66.
    15. Moskowitz, Tobias J. & Ooi, Yao Hua & Pedersen, Lasse Heje, 2012. "Time series momentum," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 228-250.
    16. repec:rim:rimwps:14-08 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. 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.
    18. Dimitrios D. Thomakos, 2008. "Optimal Linear Filtering, Smoothing and Trend Extraction for Processes with Unit Roots and Cointegration," Working Paper series 14_08, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    19. He, Xue-Zhong & Li, Kai, 2015. "Profitability of time series momentum," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 140-157.
    20. Narasimhan Jegadeesh, 2002. "Cross-Sectional and Time-Series Determinants of Momentum Returns," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 143-157, March.
    21. Jonathan B. Berk & Richard C. Green & Vasant Naik, 1999. "Optimal Investment, Growth Options, and Security Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(5), pages 1553-1607, October.
    22. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    23. 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.
    24. Chevapatrakul, Thanaset, 2013. "Return sign forecasts based on conditional risk: Evidence from the UK stock market index," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2342-2353.
    25. Jennifer Conrad & M. Deniz Yavuzm, 2017. "Momentum and Reversal: Does What Goes Up Always Come Down?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 555-581.
    26. Bianchi, Robert J. & Drew, Michael E. & Fan, John Hua, 2016. "Commodities momentum: A behavioral perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 133-150.
    27. Leung, Mark T. & Daouk, Hazem & Chen, An-Sing, 2000. "Forecasting stock indices: a comparison of classification and level estimation models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 173-190.
    28. 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.
    29. Tarun Chordia & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2002. "Momentum, Business Cycle, and Time‐varying Expected Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 985-1019, April.
    30. Nyberg, Henri, 2011. "Forecasting the direction of the US stock market with dynamic binary probit models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 561-578.
    31. Nyberg, Henri, 2011. "Forecasting the direction of the US stock market with dynamic binary probit models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 561-578, April.
    32. Huang, Dashan & Li, Jiangyuan & Wang, Liyao & Zhou, Guofu, 2020. "Time series momentum: Is it there?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(3), pages 774-794.
    33. 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.
    34. Andrei, Daniel & Cujean, Julien, 2017. "Information percolation, momentum and reversal," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 617-645.
    35. Barroso, Pedro & Santa-Clara, Pedro, 2015. "Momentum has its moments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 111-120.
    36. Miffre, Joelle & Rallis, Georgios, 2007. "Momentum strategies in commodity futures markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1863-1886, June.
    37. Kim, Abby Y. & Tse, Yiuman & Wald, John K., 2016. "Time series momentum and volatility scaling," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 103-124.
    38. Giraitis, L. & Kapetanios, G. & Yates, T., 2014. "Inference on stochastic time-varying coefficient models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 179(1), pages 46-65.
    39. Dong-Hyun Ahn & Jennifer Conrad & Robert F. Dittmar, 2003. "Risk Adjustment and Trading Strategies," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 459-485.
    40. Qian Shen & Andrew C. Szakmary & Subhash C. Sharma, 2007. "An examination of momentum strategies in commodity futures markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 227-256, March.
    41. Jonathan Lewellen, 2002. "Momentum and Autocorrelation in Stock Returns," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 533-564, March.
    42. Novy-Marx, Robert, 2012. "Is momentum really momentum?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 429-453.
    43. Laura Xiaolei Liu & Lu Zhang, 2008. "Momentum Profits, Factor Pricing, and Macroeconomic Risk," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2417-2448, November.
    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. Piccoli, Pedro & de Castro, Jessica, 2021. "Attention-return relation in the gold market and market states," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Fan, Minyou & Kearney, Fearghal & Li, Youwei & Liu, Jiadong, 2022. "Momentum and the Cross-section of Stock Volatility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    3. Minyou Fan & Youwei Li & Ming Liao & Jiadong Liu, 2022. "A reexamination of factor momentum: How strong is it?," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 585-615, August.
    4. Liu, Jiadong & Papailias, Fotis & Quinn, Barry, 2021. "Direction-of-change forecasting in commodity futures markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    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. Papailias, Fotis & Liu, Jiadong & Thomakos, Dimitrios D., 2019. "Return Signal Momentum," QBS Working Paper Series 2019/04, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    2. 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.
    3. Li, Kai, 2021. "Nonlinear effect of sentiment on momentum," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, November.
    5. 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.
    6. Fernando F. Ferreira & A. Christian Silva & Ju-Yi Yen, 2014. "Information ratio analysis of momentum strategies," Papers 1402.3030, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2014.
    7. Fernando F. Ferreira & A. Christian Silva & Ju-Yi Yen, 2019. "Detailed study of a moving average trading rule," Papers 1907.00212, arXiv.org.
    8. Sina Ehsani & Juhani T. Linnainmaa, 2019. "Factor Momentum and the Momentum Factor," NBER Working Papers 25551, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Goulding, Christian L. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Mazzoleni, Michele G., 2023. "Momentum turning points," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(3), pages 378-406.
    10. Gao, Ya & Guo, Bin & Xiong, Xiong, 2021. "Signed momentum in the Chinese stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Tobias Wiest, 2023. "Momentum: what do we know 30 years after Jegadeesh and Titman’s seminal paper?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 37(1), pages 95-114, March.
    12. Goetzmann, William N. & Huang, Simon, 2018. "Momentum in Imperial Russia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 579-591.
    13. 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.
    14. Sanjay Sehgal & Sakshi Jain & Pr Laurence the Porteu de la Morandiere, 2013. "Long-term Prior Return Patterns in Stock Returns: Evidence from Emerging Markets," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 7(2), pages 53-78.
    15. Kelly, Bryan T. & Moskowitz, Tobias J. & Pruitt, Seth, 2021. "Understanding momentum and reversal," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(3), pages 726-743.
    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. Li, Zeming & Sakkas, Athanasios & Urquhart, Andrew, 2022. "Intraday time series momentum: Global evidence and links to market characteristics," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    18. Fan, Minyou & Kearney, Fearghal & Li, Youwei & Liu, Jiadong, 2022. "Momentum and the Cross-section of Stock Volatility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    19. Fan, Minyou & Li, Youwei & Liu, Jiadong, 2018. "Risk adjusted momentum strategies: A comparison between constant and dynamic volatility scaling approaches," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 131-140.
    20. Gong, Qiang & Liu, Ming & Liu, Qianqiu, 2015. "Momentum is really short-term momentum," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 169-182.

    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:jbfina:v:124:y:2021:i:c:s0378426621000212. 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/jbf .

    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.