Across numerous asset classes, momentum strategies have historically generated high Sharpe ratios and strong positive alphas relative to standard asset pricing models. However, the returns to momentum strategies are negatively skewed: they experience infrequent but strong and persistent strings...

Momentum strategies have produced high returns and Sharpe ratios, and strong positive alphas relative to market models and other standard factors models. However, the returns to momentum strategies are highly skewed; they experience infrequent but strong and persistent strings of negative returns....

We identify flight-to-safety (FTS) days for 23 countries using only stock and bond returns and a model averaging approach. FTS days comprise less than 2% of the sample, and are associated with a 2.7% average bond-equity return differential and significant flows out of equity funds and into...

Despite their strong positive average returns across numerous asset classes, momentum strategies can experience infrequent and persistent strings of negative returns. These momentum crashes are partly forecastable. They occur in "panic'' states -- following market declines and when market...

Recent evidence shows that option volatility skews and volatility spreads between call and put options predict equity returns. This study investigates whether such predictive ability is driven by option traders' information advantage. We examine the predictive ability of volatility skews and...

Are stocks' varying sensitivies to changing investor attention and sentiment priced? Employing internet search-based proxies for both, I find novel results that are consistent with theory. Stocks that co-vary negatively with increased investor attention to the stock market outperform in the...

Using a comprehensive and survivor-bias free dataset of U.S. hedge funds, we document the role that inside investment plays in managerial compensation and fund performance. We find that funds with greater investment by insiders outperform funds with less “skin in the game” on a...

Motivated by behavioral theories, we test whether recent past performance of the momentum strategy (Past Momentum Performance--PMP) negatively predicts the performance of stale momentum portfolios. Following periods of top-quintile PMP, momentum portfolios exhibit strong reversals 2-5 years...

We study information and portfolio choices when securities' dividends depend on an aggregate (macro) risk factor and idiosyncratic (micro) shocks, and when investors can acquire costly dividend information. We establish a general result under which investors endogeneously specialize in either...

We estimate institutional investor preferences from proxy voting records. The W-NOMINATE method maps investors onto a left-right dimension based on votes for fiscal year 2012. Public pension funds and other investors on the left support a more social and environment-friendly orientation of the...