Investing Research Articles

Does the conventional wisdom to “Sell in May” (and “Buy in November”, hence also the term “Halloween Effect”) work over the long run, perhaps due to biological/psychological effects of seasons (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? To check, we turn to the long run dataset of Robert Shiller. This data set includes monthly levels of the S&P Composite… Keep Reading

Is buy-the-dip (BTD) a reliably attractive stock market timing approach? In their April 2021 paper entitled “Buy the Dip”, Thomas Shohfi and Majeed Simaan devise and test various BTD strategies as applied to SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), as follows: BTD with Lump Sum – 54 variations in which the investor progressively allocates a… Keep Reading

How can retirees estimate whether their investment strategy will sustain all the withdrawals they expect to make in retirement? In his February 2021 paper entitled “The Sustainability of (Global) Withdrawal Strategies”, Javier Estrada  presents two tools to monitor retirement plans for early signs of trouble: One evaluates sustainability of an existing withdrawal strategy. The other… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 5/3/21 through 5/7/21. 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.

A subscriber suggested review of the “SPY-TLT Universal Investment Strategy”, which each day allocates 100% of funds to SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) and/or iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) with SPY-TLT allocations equal to that with the best risk-adjusted daily performance over the past few months. There are 11 SPY-TLT allocation percentage choices: 100-0, 90-10,… Keep Reading

In the preface to the 2021 edition of his book, The Gone Fishin’ Portfolio: Get Wise, Get Wealthy…and Get on With Your Life, Alexander Green sets the following goal: “[S]how readers the safest, simplest way to achieve and maintain financial independence. …I’ll cover the investment basics and unite them in a simple, straightforward investment strategy… Keep Reading

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 4/26/21 through 4/30/21. 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.

Should investors consider adding Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Initial Public Offerings (IPO), which boomed in 2020, to their portfolios? In the March 2021 revision of their paper entitled “SPACs”, Minmo Gahng, Jay Ritter and Donghang Zhang examine investor returns on SPACs during the two phases of their lifecycle: SPAC phase– from SPAC IPO to… Keep Reading

Should investors buy stocks of companies for which analysts have issued very high earnings growth forecasts? In the March 2021 revision of their paper entitled “Diagnostic Expectations and Stock Returns”, flagged by a subscriber, Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Rafael La Porta and Andrei Shleifer update and extend prior research on the relationship between analyst long-term… Keep Reading

A subscriber asked about the effect of trading frictions on Simple Asset Class ETF Momentum Strategy (SACEMS) performance across potential momentum measurement (lookback) intervals, assuming 0.1% one-way frictions for buying and selling exchange-traded funds (ETF). To investigate, we look at the impact of these frictions on the SACEMS Top 1 portfolio, which each month holds… Keep Reading