As opposed to the “low beta low risk” convention, we show that low beta stocks are illiquid and exposed to high liquidity risk. After adjusting for liquidity risk, low beta stocks no longer outperform high beta stocks. Although investors who “bet against beta” earn a significant beta...

Employment growth (EG) is likely related to liquidity fundamentals of investment opportunities, firm health, and information environment. This, in turn, implies that liquidity risk may play a role in explaining the relation between employment growth and stock returns. We explain the link between...

We examine the market mispricing and limits-to-arbitrage hypotheses on the positive relation between cash holdings and expected stock returns. Using investor sentiment as a proxy for market mispricing, we find that returns of cash holding stocks are heavily influenced by investor sentiment....