Detractors have warned that Private Equity (PE) funds tend to over-lever their portfolio companies because of an option-like payoff, building up debt overhang and widespread bankruptcy risks. Drawing on standard trade-off theory, this paper argues PE-ownership leads to higher levels of optimal...

We distill evidence about the effects of COVID-19 on companies. Stock price reactions to the shock differed greatly across firms, depending on their resilience to social distancing, financial flexibility, and corporate culture. The same characteristics affected the response of firms' sales,...

We develop a dynamic model of corporate investment and financing decisions in which corporate insiders have superior information about the firm's growth prospects. We show that firms with positive private information can credibly signal their type to outside investors using the timing of...

Ratios that indicate the statistical significance of a fund’s alpha typically appraise its performance. A growing literature suggests that even in the absence of any ability to predict returns, holding options positions on the benchmark assets or trading frequently can significantly enhance...

The chapter investigates the potential application of value-at-risk metrics to risk-adjusted performance measures in the case of structured portfolios. The main issue is the appraisal of a decision criterion for portfolio choices with reference to either the asset portfolio given a structured...

In the present paper, we analyze two effective non-traditional performance-based stock option schemes which we call Parisian and constrained Asian executives' stock option plans. Both options have a criterion on the terminal value similar to a call option, but in addition impose a restriction on...

We study the effect of market cycles on both medium-run and long-run relative strength trading strategies. We find that the payoffs over both horizons tend to be relatively higher within a market state (rising or falling markets) but substantially lower when including transitions between states....

The ability of standard executive stock options to incite managers to adequately select the assets of their firm has been extensively questioned by academics and practitioners. However, very few alternatives exist or have been proposed to better control the investment strategies of top managers....

A model/hedging performance is relatively poorly covered in the literature. This is particularly valid for general portfolios including both vanilla and exotic instruments. Practitioners generally use so called \pnl explain which measures whether portfolio price movements can be explained by...

We propose a new asset-based factor that relies on aggregating time series momentum signals over different horizons. Aggregating signals this way captures assets' trend signal strength, thereby addressing a limitation in existing time series momentum strategies. Our factor mimics a...