Asset allocation strategies which utilize stop-loss and stop-gain rules may dramatically decrease risk and even increase long-term return relative to passive investing. I introduce an asset allocation strategy which shifts portfolio weights based on simplistic stop rules. The two-asset (S&P...

Macroeconomic data is often noisy, contradictory and lagging. These limitations render the data difficult to integrate into a robust quantitative investment strategy that generates excess returns. This paper outlines a new approach to macro investing that removes these inherent limitations in...

VAA (Vigilant Asset Allocation) is a dual-momentum based investment strategy with a vigorous crash protection and a fast momentum filter. Dual momentum combines absolute (trendfollowing) and relative (strength) momentum. Compared to the traditional dual momentum approaches, we have replaced the...

Resilient Asset Allocation (RAA) is a more aggressive version of our Lethargic Asset Allocation (LAA) strategy. It combines a more robust “All Weather” portfolio with even slower growth-trend (GT) filter and a faster market crash-protection. GT timing goes risk-off only when both the US...

Hedge Fund returns are often highly serially correlated mainly due to illiquidity exposures given that investments in such securities tend to be inactively traded and associated market prices are not always readily available. Following that, observed returns of such alternative investments tend...

We improve on our Vigilant Asset Allocation (VAA) by the introduction of a separate “canary” universe for signaling the need for crash protection, using the concept of breadth momentum. The amount of cash is now governed by the number of canary assets with bad (non-positive) momentum. The...

Campbell and Shiller average 10 years of real S&P 500 earnings to construct its Cyclically Adjusted P/E ratio, or CAPE, which they then use to forecast its future 10-year returns. In essence, Campbell and Shiller kill two birds with one large stone - they use the 10-year average to reduce noise...

Our aim is to develop a very offensive (‘aggressive’) tactical asset allocation strategy, by combining some of our previous models like Protected- (PAA), Vigilant- (VAA) and Defensive (DAA) Asset Allocation. We will call this new strategy the ‘Bold Asset Allocation’ (BAA). BAA combines a...

Return chasing is often cited as one of the primary behavioral foibles of investors, resulting in sub-par returns. Surprisingly, the literature does not provide a generally accepted and testable description of return chasing. This paper proposes a simple definition. It then describes how return...

Pricing kernels implicit in option prices play a key role in assessing the risk aversion over equity returns. We deal with non-parametric estimation of the pricing kernel (Empirical Pricing Kernel) given by the ratio of the risk-neutral density estimator and the subjective density estimator. The...