Investing Research Articles

Are all of the potentially trending/diversifying asset class proxies used in the Simple Asset Class ETF Momentum Strategy (SACEMS) necessary? Might one or more of them actually be harmful to performance? To investigate, we each month rank the nine SACEMS assets based on past return with one excluded (nine separate test series) and reform the… Keep Reading

“Stock Size and Excess Stock Portfolio Growth” finds that an equal-weighted portfolio of the (each day) 1,000 largest U.S. stocks beats its market capitalization-weighted counterpart by about 2% per year. However, the underlying research does not account for portfolio rebalancing costs and may not be representative of other stock universes. Do exchange-traded funds (ETF) that… Keep Reading

What happens if we extend the “Simple Asset Class ETF Value Strategy” (SACEVS) with a utilities risk premium, derived from the yield on Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU)? To investigate, we apply the SACEVS methodology to the following asset class exchange-traded funds (ETF), plus cash: 3-month Treasury bills (Cash) iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) iShares iBoxx… Keep Reading

“Use Short-term S&P 500 Index Indicators to Predict VIX Futures?” describes research finding a potentially exploitable relationship between S&P 500 Index short-term overbought/oversold conditions and short-term VIX futures gross returns. Do findings transfer to short-term VIX futures exchange-traded funds (ETF)? To investigate, we look at predictive relationships between daily SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)… Keep Reading

Does the S&P 500 Index (SPX) or the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) yield better short-term trading signals for stocks and VIX futures? In the May 2024 revision of his paper entitled “Chicken and Egg: Should you use the VIX to time the SPX? Or use the SPX to time the VIX?”, Robert Hanna explores mutual… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 7/1/24 through 7/5/24. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to your investing needs. Subscribers: To receive these weekly digests via email, click here to sign up for our mailing list.

Can artificial intelligence (AI), in the form of a deep-learning neural network, outperform human analysts in predicting stock prices at an annual horizon? In the May 2024 revision of his paper entitled “Can AI Replace Stock Analysts? Evidence from Deep Learning Financial Statements”, Nathan Dong tests the ability of a 5-layer neural network to predict… Keep Reading

“Countercyclical Asset Allocation Strategy” summarizes research on a simple countercyclical asset allocation strategy that systematically raises (lowers) the allocation to an asset class when its current aggregate allocation is relatively low (high). The underlying research is not specific on calculating portfolio allocations and returns. To corroborate findings, we use annual mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) allocations… Keep Reading

Is industry trend-following an attractive strategy over the long run? In their June 2024 paper entitled “A Century of Profitable Industry Trends”, Carlo Zarattini and Gary Antonacci evaluate the long-term performance of a long-only industry trend-following (Timing Industry) strategy, modeled as follows: Entry – buy an industry when its daily closing price crosses above the… Keep Reading

Is copper price a reliable leading indicator of economic activity and therefore of future corporate earnings and equity prices? To investigate, we employ the monthly price index for copper base scrap from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which spans multiple economic expansions and contractions. Using monthly levels of the copper scrap price index and… Keep Reading