IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ysm/somwrk/ysm273.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sharpening Sharpe Ratios

Author

Listed:
  • William N. Goetzmann

    (Yale University, School of Management)

  • Jonathan E. Ingersoll Jr.

    (School of Management)

  • Matthew I. Spiegel

    (School of Management)

  • Ivo Welch

    (International Center for Finance)

Abstract

It is now well known that the Sharpe ratio and other related reward-to-risk measures may be manipulated with option-like strategies. In this paper we derive the general conditions for achieving the maximum expected Sharpe ratio. We derive static rules for achieving the maximum Sharpe ratio with two or more options, as well as a continuum of derivative contracts. The optimal strategy has a truncated right tail and a fat left tail. We also derive dynamic rules for increasing the Sharpe ratio. Our results have implications for performance measurement in any setting in which managers may use derivative contracts. In a performance measurement setting, we suggest that the distribution of high Sharpe ratio managers should be compared with that of the optimal Sharpe ratio strategy. This has particular application in the hedge fund industry where use of derivatives is unconstrained and manager compensation itself induces a non-linear payoff. The shape of the optimal Sharpe ratio leads to further conjectures. Expected returns being held constant, high Sharpe ratio strategies are, by definition, strategies that generate regular modest profits punctuated by occasional crashes. Our evidence suggests that the "peso problem" may be ubiquitous in any investment management industry that rewards high Sharpe ratio managers.

Suggested Citation

  • William N. Goetzmann & Jonathan E. Ingersoll Jr. & Matthew I. Spiegel & Ivo Welch, 2002. "Sharpening Sharpe Ratios," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm273, Yale School of Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm273
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=302815
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen J. Brown & William N. Goetzmann & James M. Park, 1998. "Hedge Funds and the Asian Currency Crisis of 1997," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 98-014, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
    2. Mark Mitchell & Todd Pulvino, 2001. "Characteristics of Risk and Return in Risk Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2135-2175, December.
    3. Henriksson, Roy D & Merton, Robert C, 1981. "On Market Timing and Investment Performance. II. Statistical Procedures for Evaluating Forecasting Skills," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(4), pages 513-533, October.
    4. William F. Sharpe, 1965. "Mutual Fund Performance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39, pages 119-119.
    5. Chevalier, Judith & Ellison, Glenn, 1997. "Risk Taking by Mutual Funds as a Response to Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1167-1200, December.
    6. Dybvig, Philip H & Ingersoll, Jonathan E, Jr, 1982. "Mean-Variance Theory in Complete Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(2), pages 233-251, April.
    7. Sharpe, W F, 1981. "Decentralized Investment Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 217-234, May.
    8. Brown, Keith C & Harlow, W V & Starks, Laura T, 1996. "Of Tournaments and Temptations: An Analysis of Managerial Incentives in the Mutual Fund Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 85-110, March.
    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. Ferson, Wayne E., 2013. "Investment Performance: A Review and Synthesis," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 969-1010, Elsevier.
    2. Kee-Hong Bae & Junesuh Yi, 2008. "The Impact of the Short-Short Rule Repeal on the Timing Ability of Mutual Funds," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(7-8), pages 969-997.
    3. Agarwal, Vikas & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naik, Narayan Y., 2009. "Role of managerial incentives and discretion in hedge fund performance," CFR Working Papers 04-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    4. Hung, Pi-Hsia & Lien, Donald & Kuo, Ming-Sin, 2020. "Window dressing in equity mutual funds," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 338-354.
    5. Fabrice Hervé, 2006. "Famille de fonds de pension, performance et persistance de la performance," Working Papers CREGO 1060903, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    6. Jennifer Huang & Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2011. "Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2575-2616.
    7. 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.
    8. Galkiewicz, Dominika Paula, 2014. "Manager Characteristics and Credit Derivative Use by U.S. Corporate Bond Funds," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 495, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    9. Connie Becker & Wayne Ferson & David Myers & Michael Schill, 1998. "Conditional Market Timing with Benchmark Investors," NBER Working Papers 6434, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Charles Cao & Eric Ghysels & Frank Hatheway, 2001. "Derivatives Do Affect Mutual Funds Returns : How and When?," CIRANO Working Papers 2001s-62, CIRANO.
    11. Kee‐Hong Bae & Junesuh Yi, 2008. "The Impact of the Short‐Short Rule Repeal on the Timing Ability of Mutual Funds," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(7‐8), pages 969-997, September.
    12. Benjamin Sahel & Antonio Scalia & Luana Zaccaria, 2021. "Career concerns and peer effects in institutional tournaments: Evidence from ECB reserve currency portfolios," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 47-73, March.
    13. Paul Cox & Stephen Brammer & Andrew Millington, 2007. "Pension Fund Manager Tournaments and Attitudes Towards Corporate Characteristics," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(7‐8), pages 1307-1326, September.
    14. Keith Cuthbertson & Simon Hayley & Dirk Nitzsche, 2016. "Market and Style Timing: German Equity and Bond Funds," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 22(4), pages 667-696, September.
    15. Agarwal, Vikas & Boyson, Nicole M. & Naik, Narayan Y., 2007. "Hedge funds for retail investors? An examination of hedged mutual funds," CFR Working Papers 07-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    16. Martin Gold, 2010. "Fiduciary Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13813.
    17. Dominika Paula Gałkiewicz, 2015. "Manager Characteristics and Credit Derivative Use by U.S. Corporate Bond Funds," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2015-018, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    18. Galkiewicz, Dominika Paula, 2014. "Manager Characteristics and Credit Derivative Use by U.S. Corporate Bond Funds," Discussion Papers in Economics 24445, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    19. DeVault, Luke & Turtle, H.J. & Wang, Kainan, 2021. "Blessing or curse? Institutional investment in leveraged ETFs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    20. Bernd Scherer, 2012. "Greed can be dangerous to your Sharpe," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(6), pages 369-372, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sharpe Ratio; Hedge Funds; Derivatives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General

    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:ysm:somwrk:ysm273. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/smyalus.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.