IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sol/spaper/2013-226296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Virtual Currency, Tangible Return: Portfolio Diversification with Bitcoins

Author

Listed:
  • Marie Briere
  • Kim Oosterlinck
  • Ariane Szafarz

Abstract

Bitcoin (BTC) is a major virtual currency. Using weekly data over the 2010-2013 period, we analyze a BTC investment from the standpoint of a US investor with a diversified portfolio including both traditional assets (worldwide stocks, bonds, hard currencies) and alternative investments (commodities, hedge funds, real estate). Over the period under consideration, BTC investment had highly distinctive features, including exceptionally high average return and volatility. Its correlation with other assets was remarkably low. Spanning tests confirm that BTC investment offers significant diversification benefits. We show that the inclusion of even a small proportion of BTCs may dramatically improve the risk-return trade-off of well-diversified portfolios. Results should however be taken with caution as the data may reflect early-stage behavior that may not last in the medium or long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Marie Briere & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2015. "Virtual Currency, Tangible Return: Portfolio Diversification with Bitcoins," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 16(6), pages 365-373.
    • Handle: RePEc:sol:spaper:2013/226296
    Note: SCOPUS: re.j
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/226296/3/CEBPostprint019.pdf
    File Function: Œuvre complète ou partie de l'œuvre
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    2. Huberman, Gur & Kandel, Shmuel, 1987. "Mean-Variance Spanning," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 873-888, September.
    3. 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.
    4. David, Géraldine & Oosterlinck, Kim & Szafarz, Ariane, 2013. "Art market inefficiency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 23-25.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7746 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. 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.
    7. Luc Renneboog & Christophe Spaenjers, 2013. "Buying Beauty: On Prices and Returns in the Art Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 36-53, February.
    8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7739 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Marie Briere & Alexandre Burgues & Ombretta Signori, 2008. "Volatility Exposure for Strategic Asset Allocation," Working Papers CEB 08-034.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    10. Frehen, Rik G.P. & Goetzmann, William N. & Geert Rouwenhorst, K., 2013. "New evidence on the first financial bubble," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 585-607.
    11. Francois R. Velde, 2013. "Bitcoin: a primer," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Dec.
    12. Edwin J. Elton, 1999. "Presidential Address: Expected Return, Realized Return, and Asset Pricing Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1199-1220, August.
    13. William N. Goetzmann & Lingfeng Li & K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 2005. "Long-Term Global Market Correlations," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(1), pages 1-38, January.
    14. Bodie, Zvi, 1976. "Common Stocks as a Hedge against Inflation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 31(2), pages 459-470, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Peñaranda, Francisco & Sentana, Enrique, 2012. "Spanning tests in return and stochastic discount factor mean–variance frontiers: A unifying approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(2), pages 303-324.
    2. Gregor Dorfleitner & Carina Lung, 2018. "Cryptocurrencies from the perspective of euro investors: a re-examination of diversification benefits and a new day-of-the-week effect," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(7), pages 472-494, December.
    3. Lingfeng Li, 2003. "An Economic Measure of Diversification Benefits," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm371, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jul 2003.
    4. Halil I. Memis & Steffen Sebastian, 2020. "Währungsabsicherung bei Immobilienaktien außerhalb des Euroraums [Currency hedging for real estate investments outside the Eurozone]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 6(1), pages 47-63, April.
    5. Tim A. Kroencke & Felix Schindler & Andreas Schrimpf, 2014. "International Diversification Benefits with Foreign Exchange Investment Styles," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(5), pages 1847-1883.
    6. Enrique Sentana, 2009. "The econometrics of mean-variance efficiency tests: a survey," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 12(3), pages 65-101, November.
    7. Tim Schmitz & Ingo Hoffmann, 2020. "Re-evaluating cryptocurrencies' contribution to portfolio diversification -- A portfolio analysis with special focus on German investors," Papers 2006.06237, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    8. Fethke, Tobias & Prokopczuk, Marcel, 2018. "Is Commodity Index Investing Profitable?," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-635, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    9. Kroencke, Tim A. & Schindler, Felix, 2012. "International diversification with securitized real estate and the veiling glare from currency risk," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1851-1866.
    10. Charles Cao & Jing-Zhi Huang, 2007. "Determinants of S&P 500 index option returns," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-38, January.
    11. Andy Lardon & Marc Deloof, 2014. "Financial disclosure by SMEs listed on a semi-regulated market: evidence from the Euronext Free Market," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 361-385, February.
    12. Galvani, Valentina & Faychuk, Vita, 2022. "The Mean-Variance Core of Cryptocurrencies: When More is Not Better," Working Papers 2022-4, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9296 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Aye, Goodness C. & Gil-Alana, Luis A. & Gupta, Rangan & Wohar, Mark E., 2017. "The efficiency of the art market: Evidence from variance ratio tests, linear and nonlinear fractional integration approaches," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 283-294.
    15. Amengual, Dante & Sentana, Enrique, 2010. "A comparison of mean-variance efficiency tests," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 154(1), pages 16-34, January.
    16. Fogarty, James Joseph & Sadler, Rohan, 2012. "To Save or Savour: A Review of Wine Investment," Working Papers 139663, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    17. Wang, Fang, 2023. "Do emerging art market segments have their own price dynamics? Evidence from the Chinese art market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 318-331.
    18. Penasse, J.N.G. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2014. "Bubbles and Trading Frenzies : Evidence from the Art Market," Other publications TiSEM bf0d8984-df7f-4f02-afc7-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Gourieroux, C. & Monfort, A., 2005. "The econometrics of efficient portfolios," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 1-41, January.
    20. Hans Dewachter & Konstantijn Maes & Kristien Smedts, 2003. "Monetary unification and the price of risk: An unconditional analysis," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 139(2), pages 276-305, June.
    21. Nucera, Federico, 2017. "Unemployment fluctuations and the predictability of currency returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 88-106.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; diversification; return; risk; virtual currency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • F39 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Other
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

    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:sol:spaper:2013/226296. 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: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cebulbe.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.