We document economically large momentum profits when sorting ETFs on returns over the past two to four years. A value-weighted, long-short strategy based on ETF momentum delivers Carhart (1997) four-factor alphas of up to 1.20% per month. Neither cross-sectional stock momentum nor co-variation...

A substantial amount is incurred in ETF transaction costs each year. This paper examines the performance of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model and other naïve models to time trades in 1,350 ETFs over the 2011 to 2017 period. We find varied spread savings for large and retail ETF traders by...

Active ETFs are less liquid than their underlying portfolios. This finding, which contrasts with that for passive ETFs, is attributed to uncertainty of future holdings of active ETFs. In addition, while diversification generally reduces firm-specific information asymmetry and improves portfolio...

Can ETFs trigger fire sales in illiquid assets? We develop and empirically examine a model where an authorized participant (AP) holds bond inventory and connects the ETF to the underlying bond market. For redemptions, the AP acts as a buffer between the two markets, holding redeemed bonds to...

We examine the impact of ETF ownership on the commonality in liquidity of underlying stocks, while controlling for other institutional ownership. Analyses using aggregate stock-level ETF ownership and common ETF ownership at the stock-pair level indicate that ETF ownership significantly...

We study the interaction between ETF rebalancing and hedge fund “front-running” trades and its implications for the capital market. First, we document that ETF rebalancing has a strong negative relation with future stock returns. Second, we observe that hedge funds gradually increase...

We model how ETFs compete and set fees. We show that ETF secondary market liquidity plays a key role in determining fees and leads to liquidity clienteles. More liquid ETFs charge higher fees in equilibrium and attract shorter horizon investors that are more sensitive to liquidity than to fees....

The popularity of passive investing through index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has grown substantially over recent years, displacing higher-cost active investment styles. A shift towards passive investing could affect securities markets in two key ways. First, it could result in...

We examine the daily activity and performance of a large panel of individual investors in Sweden's Premium Pension System. We find that active investors earn significantly higher returns and risk-adjusted returns than inactive investors. A performance decomposition analysis reveals that most of...

We examine the daily activity and performance of a large panel of individual investors in Sweden's Premium Pension System in the period 2000 to 2010. We find that active investors outperform passive investors, and that there is a causal effect of fund changes on performance. Chosen funds...