How many stocks are enough for diversifying Canadian institutional portfolios?
Portfolio risk is a function of the number of stocks held in portfolios. We simulate portfolios using daily observations for all traded and delisted equities in Canada from 1975 to 2011 and we calculate several measures of risk, including heavy-tailed to account for black swan events. For each risk measure, we calculate the average number of portfolio holdings and the upper limits of these holdings to assure investors of a specific reduction in diversifiable risk. In contrast to previous literature that suggests 10-15 stocks are enough to provide adequate diversification for an average investor, we find that in fact more than 50 stocks are needed to achieve the same level of diversification most of the time instead of on average.
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| Length: | 12 pages |
| Date of creation: | 2014 |
| Date of revision: | 2014 |
| Publication status: | Published by the University of Tasmania, Discussion paper 2014-8 |
| Handle: | RePEc:tas:wpaper:17836 |
| Contact details of provider: | Postal: Private Bag 85, Hobart, Tasmania 7001 Phone: +61 3 6226 7672 Fax: +61 3 6226 7587 Web page: http://www.utas.edu.au/business-and-economics More information through EDIRC
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References listed on IDEAS
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- John Y. Campbell, 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, 02.
- John Y. Campbell & Martin Lettau & Burton G. Malkiel & Yexiao Xu, 2000. "Have Individual Stocks Become More Volatile? An Empirical Exploration of Idiosyncratic Risk," NBER Working Papers 7590, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Malkiel, Burton & Campbell, John & Lettau, Martin & Xu, Yexiao, 2001. "Have Individual Stocks Become More Volatile? An Empirical Exploration of Idiosyncratic Risk," Scholarly Articles 3128707, Harvard University Department of Economics.
- Alexeev, Vitali & Tapon, Francis, 2013. "Equity Portfolio Diversification: How Many Stocks are Enough? Evidence from Five Developed Markets," Working Papers 2013-16, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 20 Nov 2013. Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
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