The early work of Tobin (1958) showed that portfolio allocation decisions can be reduced to a two stage process: first decide the relative allocation of assets across the risky assets, and second decide how to divide total wealth between the risky assets and the safe asset. This so called...

We combine self-collected historical data from 1867 to 1907 with CRSP data from 1926 to 2012, to examine the risk and return over the past 140 years of one of the most popular mechanical trading strategies — momentum. We find that momentum has earned abnormally high risk-adjusted returns — a...

We show that using data which are properly available in real time when assessing the sensitivity of asset prices to economic news leads to different empirical findings that when data availability and timing issues are ignored. We do this by focusing on a particular example, namely Chen, Roll and...

This paper is the first to present evidence on the magnitude of derivative use by mutual funds. Using a unique data set of detailed balance sheet information on open-end mutual funds, we characterize the nature of derivative use by these funds. Most mutual funds using derivatives do so to a very...

The early work of Tobin (1958) showed that portfolio allocation decisions can be reduced to a two stage process: first decide the relative allocation of assets across the risky assets, and second decide how to divide total wealth between the risky assets and the safe asset. This so called...

The U.S. equity markets are largely driven by actions of institutional investors. Using quarterly 13-F holdings, we construct the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of institutional investor concentration as a measure of granularity. We study how granularity affects: the cross-section of returns,...

We use a quantile-based measure of conditional skewness (or asymmetry) that is robust to outliers and therefore particularly suited for recalcitrant series such as emerging market returns. Our study is on the following portfolio returns: developed markets, emerging markets, the world, and...

The early work of Tobin (1958) showed that portfolio allocation decisions can be reduced to a two stage process: first decide the relative allocation of assets across the risky assets, and second decide how to divide total wealth between the risky assets and the safe asset. This so called...

To characterize ambiguity we use machine learning to impose guidance and discipline on the formulation of expectations in a data-rich environment. In addition, we use the bootstrap to generate plausible synthetic samples of data not seen in historical real data to create statistics of interest...

Artificial intelligence, or AI, enhancements are increasingly shaping our daily lives. Financial decision-making is no exception to this. We introduce the notion of AI Alter Egos, which are shadow robo-investors, and use a unique data set covering brokerage accounts for a large cross-section of...