As a consequence of recent technological advances and the proliferation of high-frequency trading and other forms of algorithmic trading, the cost of trading in financial markets has irrevocably changed. One important change relates to how trading affects prices; this is known as price impact....

Instead of using industry groups or asset pricing models to estimate the cost of capital we propose using risk equivalent classes known as basis assets. A basis asset is constructed by grouping firms together whose returns indicate they share a common risk exposure, which in theory permits a...