In this paper we develop the rst estimator of the covariance matrix that relies solely onforward-looking information. This estimator only uses price information from a cross-sectionof plain-vanilla options. In an out-of-sample study for US blue-chip stocks we show that aminimum-variance strategy...

This paper serves two purposes. First, we introduce a new data set on the German stock marketwhich is publicly available to all researchers. It comprises factor returns (a market factor, asize factor, a book-to-market factor, and a momentum factor) as well as returns of portfolioswhich are...

This paper conducts a comprehensive asset pricing study based on a unique dataset for theGerman stock market. For the period 1963 to 2006 we show that value characteristics andmomentum explain the cross-section of stock returns. Corresponding factor portfolios havesignificant premiums across...