High (low) quality stocks generate anomalously high (low) returns above and beyond expected returns based on betas, market sizes, valuations, and momentum. We provide a comprehensive overview of commonly used quality definitions and test their predictive power for stock returns. We show that...

Mutual funds following factor investing strategies based on equity asset pricing anomalies, such as the small cap, value, and momentum effects, earn significantly higher alphas than traditional actively managed mutual funds. A buy-and-hold strategy for a random factor fund yields 110 basis...

In this note we revisit the 2011 and 2013 papers of Blitz, Huij, and Martens (BHM2011), and Blitz, Huij, Lansdorp, and Verbeek (BHLV2013) in which momentum and reversal strategies on residual returns are proposed. Our results indicate that the main findings of these studies, that residual...

In this paper, we revisit the question whether the Fama-French factors are manifestations of distress risk premiums. To this end, we develop new tests specifically aimed at dissecting the Fama-French factor returns from a distress risk premium. While we find that small-cap and value exposures...

Using monthly return data of more than 6,400 US equity mutual funds we investigate short-run performance persistence over the period 1984-2003. We sort funds into rank portfolios based on past performance, and evaluate the portfolios' out-of-sample performance. To cope with short ranking...

Abnormal price reaction around S&P 500 index changes has been considered as strong evidence that long term demand for stocks is downward sloping. This notion, however, has recently lost popularity due to the evidence that new additions are accompanied with a contemporaneous change in future...

Conventional short-term reversal strategies exhibit dynamic exposures to the Fama and French (1993) factors. We develop a novel reversal strategy based on residual stock returns that does not exhibit these exposures and consequently earns risk-adjusted returns that are twice as large as those of...

We examine the performance of passively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that provide exposure to global emerging markets equities. We find that the tracking errors of these funds are substantially higher than previously reported levels for developed markets ETFs. ETFs that use statistical...