The traditional active vs passive debate has been shaken up by the emergence of “smart beta” strategies. As the population of these products has exploded, the quest to differentiate among them has focused on portfolio construction techniques rather than what actually matters, namely...

We give an explicit formulaic algorithm and source code for building long-only benchmark portfolios and then using these benchmarks in long-only market outperformance strategies. The benchmarks (or the corresponding betas) do not involve any principal components, nor do they require iterations....

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of alternatively weighted (“alternative beta”) indices, such as fundamentally weighted indices, equal-weighted indices and low-volatility indices. We have surveyed a broad range of alternative beta strategies that have gained significant...

The beta dispersion, which is the spread of betas on a stock market, can be interpreted as a measure of market vulnerability. This study examines the economic idea of the beta dispersion and its application as a market return predictor. Based on the empirical beta dispersion observed in the US...

We present an active-learning computer exercise where students pick stocks for a portfolio. Using their selection of stocks, two different portfolios are created: 1) a portfolio that never rebalances and 2) a portfolio that continuously rebalances. They then calculate the rates of return and...

This paper compares several investment strategies designed to exploit the low-beta anomaly. Although the notion of buying low-beta stocks and selling high-beta stocks is natural, a choice is necessary with respect to the relative weighting of high-beta stocks and low-beta stocks in the...

This research presents evidence for the existence of differences in asset beta risk in the liquidity cross-section of assets due to correlated trading. It is argued that due to differences in liquidity or cost, most trading activity is concentrated on the subset of liquid assets. In the presence...

Real estate is an important asset class, but what specifically does real estate contribute to improve diversified stock–bond portfolios? The author decomposes real estate investment trust returns into their factor betas to show that real estate is a hybrid asset class, with returns explained...

Using several multi-factor models, I find strong "betting against beta'' effects - flat relations between betas and expected returns - for most non-market factors in US and international stock markets. "Arbitrage portfolios'' designed to profit from these effects earn average returns similar to...