This paper tests the idea that financial intermediaries who act as arbitrageurs in the asset market help determine the equilibrium risk of financial assets. They do this by turning “alphas” into “betas”; assets with large abnormal returns attract more arbitrage and covary correspondingly...

We derive a nonparametric test for constant (continuous) beta over a fixed interval of time. Continuous beta is defined as the ratio of the continuous covariation between an asset and observable risk factor (e.g., the market return) and the continuous variation of the latter. Our test is based...

This teaching note shows the relationship between levered and unlevered betas and the general formulation for the cost of equity. It also shows, step by step, the procedure to estimate betas from data found in the stock market.It shows well known procedures for estimating betas: correlation...

Este trabajo muestra la relación entre las betas apalancadas y sin deuda y la formulación general para el costo del capital. También muestra, paso a paso, el procedimiento para calcular las betas a partir de los datos que se encuentran en el mercado de valores. Se muestran procedimientos...

The recent advent of high-frequency data and advances in financial econometrics allow investors to evaluate the accuracy of different beta (systematic risk) measurements. Benchmarking against the monthly realized beta formed by 30-minute data, we compare the popular Fama-MacBeth betas, the...

While thousands of pages have been written by academia and practitioners about common ordinary Beta, little has been written about Total Beta. Extant writing on Total Beta is, primarily, a good mix of confusion over: (1) what Beta is supposed to represent; (2) the proper use of statistical...

As of late, the business appraisal profession has been inundated with articles defending or rebutting Total Beta, and discussing various related aspects of capital market theory. . . . . Much of the discussion is convoluted and, alas, much misstates fundamental concepts and theory. There appear...

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of alternatively weighted (“alternative beta”) indices, such as fundamentally weighted indices, equal-weighted indices and low-volatility indices. We have surveyed a broad range of alternative beta strategies that have gained significant...

Current asset pricing models require mean-variance efficient benchmarks, which are generally unavailable because of partial securitization and free float restrictions. We provide a pricing model that uses inefficient benchmarks, a two-beta model, one induced by the benchmark and one adjusting...

Sharpe's (1964) Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) assumes that the relationship between risk and return is positive, linear and significant. However, it is not free from controversies and one of them advocates replacing CAPM's beta by downside beta based on investors' preference of downside...