We show that recent prominent equity factor models are to a large degree compatible with the Merton's (1973) Intertemporal CAPM (ICAPM) framework. Factors associated with alternative profitability measures forecast the equity premium in a way that is consistent with the ICAPM. Several factors...

The level of firm investment, along with firm profitability, has been shown to be empirically powerful asset pricing factors in the US and other markets. The q-factor model of Hou, Xue, and Zhang (2014), and the 5-factor model of Fama and French (2014a), both rely on factors capturing the...

We construct the five factors in Fama and French (FF, 2015) and the four factors in Hou, Xue, and Zhang (HXZ, 2015) for the Chinese stock market. Our objective is to identify a parsimonious factor model that builds on these factors and provides an adequate explanation for time-series and...

Are high-frequency realized measures profitable for low-frequency investment? I compare the profitability of the same investment strategy against two implementations of its trading signals: one that conventionally uses daily returns (LF) and the other that takes advantage of high-frequency (HF)...

Current R&D expenditures forecast cash-based operating profitability up to three years in the future and sometimes as much as ten years, but do not forecast asset growth. High R&D firms have positive loadings on a cash-based operating profitability factor, and zero alphas. Capitalizing R&D to...

This paper investigates the choice that market makers take when deciding what assets to trade in the face of the diversity in the risk profile of investors. Specifically, financial assets are dichotomized into relatively high risk and relatively low risk assets. Consequently, a model of vertical...

The last two decades have shown us the growing importance of corporate, social and governance programs, as executives, investors and regulators have become increasingly aware of these programs' potential to mitigate corporate crises and build solid social reputation. Thus, mutual funds that...

Traditionally, we have assessed firm success relative to a two factor model using say size and a book-to-market ratio. However, recently Novy-Marx (2013) suggests that these measures may simple be a proxy for profitability in firms. The argument is that traditional profitability measures can be...

Using popular technical trading rule of moving averages, this study documents the profitability of technical analysis for equal weighted random portfolios from Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and New Zealand Exchange (NZX) equity markets. The findings confirm prior evidence on the...