IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/snbeco/v3y2023i7d10.1007_s43546-023-00487-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Predicting European stock returns using machine learning

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Marsi

    (University of Bologna)

Abstract

This paper examines the predictability of equity returns in the European stock market through the use of several machine learning techniques. Specifically, we focus on the monthly returns of equities included in the EURO STOXX 50 index from 1994 to 2018, with a large set of stock-level characteristics interacted with macroeconomic variables as predictors. Unlike prior studies that used US data and larger samples, we find that linear methods perform better than highly non-linear ones in terms of predictability. However, the overall predictive ability of machine learning algorithms remains relatively low, indicating that equity returns in our sample are highly unpredictable, in line with the efficient market hypothesis. Our findings suggest that while machine learning may offer some predictive power, it is not a panacea for predicting equity returns in the European stock market.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Marsi, 2023. "Predicting European stock returns using machine learning," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(7), pages 1-25, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:7:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00487-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s43546-023-00487-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-023-00487-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43546-023-00487-4?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. Bryan T. Kelly & Semyon Malamud & Kangying Zhou, 2022. "The Virtue of Complexity in Return Prediction," NBER Working Papers 30217, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Ivo Welch & Amit Goyal, 2008. "A Comprehensive Look at The Empirical Performance of Equity Premium Prediction," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1455-1508, July.
    3. Domenico Giannone & Michele Lenza & Giorgio E. Primiceri, 2021. "Economic Predictions With Big Data: The Illusion of Sparsity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(5), pages 2409-2437, September.
    4. Bryan Kelly & Seth Pruitt, 2013. "Market Expectations in the Cross-Section of Present Values," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1721-1756, October.
    5. John Y. Campbell & Samuel B. Thompson, 2008. "Predicting Excess Stock Returns Out of Sample: Can Anything Beat the Historical Average?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1509-1531, July.
    6. Shihao Gu & Bryan Kelly & Dacheng Xiu, 2020. "Empirical Asset Pricing via Machine Learning," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 33(5), pages 2223-2273.
    7. Leippold, Markus & Wang, Qian & Zhou, Wenyu, 2022. "Machine learning in the Chinese stock market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 64-82.
    8. Shihao Gu & Bryan Kelly & Dacheng Xiu, 2020. "Empirical Asset Pricing via Machine Learning," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 2223-2273.
    9. Stefano Giglio & Dacheng Xiu, 2021. "Asset Pricing with Omitted Factors," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(7), pages 1947-1990.
    10. Pesaran, M Hashem & Timmermann, Allan, 1995. "Predictability of Stock Returns: Robustness and Economic Significance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1201-1228, September.
    11. Nathaniel Light & Denys Maslov & Oleg Rytchkov, 2017. "Aggregation of Information About the Cross Section of Stock Returns: A Latent Variable Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 1339-1381.
    12. Diebold, Francis X & Mariano, Roberto S, 2002. "Comparing Predictive Accuracy," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 134-144, January.
    13. John Y. Campbell, Robert J. Shiller, 1988. "The Dividend-Price Ratio and Expectations of Future Dividends and Discount Factors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(3), pages 195-228.
    14. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    15. Harvey, David & Leybourne, Stephen & Newbold, Paul, 1997. "Testing the equality of prediction mean squared errors," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 281-291, June.
    16. Vaibhav Lalwani & Vedprakash Vasantrao Meshram, 2022. "The cross-section of Indian stock returns: evidence using machine learning," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(16), pages 1814-1828, April.
    17. Wolfgang Drobetz & Tizian Otto, 2021. "Empirical asset pricing via machine learning: evidence from the European stock market," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(7), pages 507-538, December.
    18. G. Andrew Karolyi, 2016. "Home Bias, an Academic Puzzle," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(6), pages 2049-2078.
    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. Mykola Babiak & Jozef Barunik, 2020. "Deep Learning, Predictability, and Optimal Portfolio Returns," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp677, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    2. Christian Fieberg & Daniel Metko & Thorsten Poddig & Thomas Loy, 2023. "Machine learning techniques for cross-sectional equity returns’ prediction," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 45(1), pages 289-323, March.
    3. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    4. Wang, Yunqi & Zhou, Ti, 2023. "Out-of-sample equity premium prediction: The role of option-implied constraints," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 199-226.
    5. Jian Chen & Jiaquan Yao & Qunzi Zhang & Xiaoneng Zhu, 2023. "Global Disaster Risk Matters," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 576-597, January.
    6. repec:ipg:wpaper:2013-020 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Leland E. Farmer & Lawrence Schmidt & Allan Timmermann, 2023. "Pockets of Predictability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1279-1341, June.
    8. Smith, Simon C., 2021. "International stock return predictability," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Zhao, Albert Bo & Cheng, Tingting, 2022. "Stock return prediction: Stacking a variety of models," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 288-317.
    10. , & Stein, Tobias, 2021. "Equity premium predictability over the business cycle," CEPR Discussion Papers 16357, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Yuan Liao & Xinjie Ma & Andreas Neuhierl & Zhentao Shi, 2023. "Economic Forecasts Using Many Noises," Papers 2312.05593, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    12. Back, Kerry & Crotty, Kevin & Kazempour, Seyed Mohammad, 2022. "Validity, tightness, and forecasting power of risk premium bounds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 732-760.
    13. Shi, Qi, 2023. "The RP-PCA factors and stock return predictability: An aligned approach," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Gupta, Rangan & Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Modise, Mampho P. & Nguyen, Duc Khuong, 2014. "Can economic uncertainty, financial stress and consumer sentiments predict U.S. equity premium?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 367-378.
    15. Feng Zhao & Guofu Zhou & Xiaoneng Zhu, 2021. "Unspanned Global Macro Risks in Bond Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7825-7843, December.
    16. Cakici, Nusret & Fieberg, Christian & Metko, Daniel & Zaremba, Adam, 2023. "Machine learning goes global: Cross-sectional return predictability in international stock markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    17. Zhaoxing Gao & Ruey S. Tsay, 2023. "Supervised Dynamic PCA: Linear Dynamic Forecasting with Many Predictors," Papers 2307.07689, arXiv.org.
    18. Zongwu Cai & Pixiong Chen, 2022. "New Online Investor Sentiment and Asset Returns," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 202216, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2022.
    19. Haase, Felix & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2023. "Predictability of bull and bear markets: A new look at forecasting stock market regimes (and returns) in the US," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 587-605.
    20. Huang, Dashan & Li, Jiangyuan & Wang, Liyao, 2021. "Are disagreements agreeable? Evidence from information aggregation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 83-101.
    21. Eduard Baitinger, 2021. "Forecasting asset returns with network‐based metrics: A statistical and economic analysis," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(7), pages 1342-1375, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Machine learning; Stock returns predictability; Forecasting; European stock market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

    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:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:7:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00487-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.