A comprehensive description of the trading and statistical characteristics of VIX futures and their exchange-traded notes motivates our study of their benefits to equity investors seeking to diversify their exposure. We analyze when diversification into VIX futures is ex-ante optimal for...

The concepts of portfolio optimization and diversification have been instrumental in the development and understanding of financial markets and financial decision making. In light of the 60year anniversary of Harry Markowitz’s paper “Portfolio Selection,” we review some of the approaches...

A factor analysis-based approach for estimating high dimensional covariance matrix is proposed and is applied to solve the mean–variance portfolio optimization problem in finance. The consistency of the proposed estimator is established by imposing a factor model structure with a relative weak...

This paper deals with cross section dependence, homogeneity restrictions and small sample bias issues in dynamic panel regressions. To address the bias problem we develop a panel approach to median unbiased estimation that takes account of cross section dependence. The new estimators given here...

We show that average excess returns during the last two years of the presidential cycle are significantly higher than during the first two years: 9.8 percent over the period 1948 2008. This pattern in returns cannot be explained by business-cycle variables capturing time-varying risk premia,...

Events that directly affect stock indices are of considerable importance to various index instruments such as ETFs and index funds. One of the most important of such events involves updating the index, which takes place once or twice per year. The effect this has on the capital markets is known...

Investors can generate excess returns by implementing trading strategies based on publicly available equity analyst forecasts. This paper captures the information provided by analysts by the implied cost of capital (ICC), the internal rate of return that equates a firm’s share price to the...