Output and expected returns

This paper shows for 1929–2003 U.S. data and also for international G-7 data that the ratio of share prices to GDP tracks a large fraction of the variation over time in expected returns on the aggregate stock market, capturing more of that variation than do price–earnings and price–dividend ratios and often also providing additional information about excess returns. The price–output ratio tracks long-term U.S. cumulative stock returns almost as well as the cay-ratio of Lettau and Ludvigson [2001a. Journal of Finance 56, 815–849, 2005. Journal of Financial Economics 76, 583–626], although the cay-ratio tracks variation in U.S. excess returns better. The price–output ratio, however, involves no parameter estimation and is easily constructed for non-U.S. countries.     

Return dispersion and expected returns

This paper proposes a two-factor asset-pricing model that incorporates market return and return dispersion. Consistent with this model, we find that stocks with higher sensitivities to return dispersion have higher average returns, and that return dispersion carries a significant positive price of risk. In particular, the return dispersion factor dominates the book-to-market factor in explaining cross-sectional expected returns. The return dispersion model outperforms the CAPM, MVM, IVM, and FF-3M when using a set of 5×5 test portfolios constructed from NYSE and AMEX stock returns from August 1963 to December 2005. Return dispersion continues to play an important role in explaining the cross-sectional variation of expected returns, even when market volatility, idiosyncratic volatility, size, book-to-market factors, and a momentum factor are included. This study sheds some light on the ability of return dispersion to explain expected returns beyond the standard asset-pricing factors. Our finding suggests that return dispersion captures two dimensions of systematic risk: the business cycle and fundamental economic restructuring.     

Cross-sectional dispersion and expected returns

This study investigates whether the cross-sectional dispersion of stock returns, which reflects the aggregate level of idiosyncratic risk in the market, represents a priced state variable. We find that stocks with high sensitivities to dispersion offer low expected returns. Furthermore, a zero-cost spread portfolio that is long (short) in stocks with low (high) dispersion betas produces a statistically and economically significant return. Dispersion is associated with a significantly negative risk premium in the cross section (–1.32% per annum) which is distinct from premia commanded by alternative systematic factors. These results are robust to stock characteristics and market conditions.     

Mean reversion and consumption smoothing

Most models of the evolution of wealth and consumption assumethat wealth volatility and risk premium are constant. But infact, volatility decliners, and risk premium seems to decline,as wealth rises. A model that allows mean reversion in the sensethat the risk premium declines as wealth rises can help explainboth the 'consumption smoothing puzzle' and the 'equity premiumpuzzle'. In an example of such a model that gives us an analyticsolution, direct and derived risk aversion are both constant,but differ.     

Persistence and mean reversion in UK stock returns

This paper re-examines the issue of persistence and mean reversion in UK stock returns in the light of new developments published in Chow and Denning (1993) the random walk hypothesis is tested using multiple variance ratios for returns on the Financial Times All Share Index and 330 individual stocks for the period January 1965 to June 1994. There is no evidence of reversion in the UK stock market. Persistence only exists in high frequency data and is less strong in more recent times. Moreover, it is a portfolio phenomenon and is related to firm size. There is a possibility that persistence/reversion is also industry-related.     

A tale of three schools: insights on autocorrelations of short-horizon stock returns

This article reexamines the autocorrelation patterns of short-horizonstock returns. We document empirical results which imply thatthese autocorrelations have been overstated in the existingliterature. Based on several new insights, we provide supportfor a market efficiency-based explanation of the evidence. Ouranalysis suggests that institutional factors are the most likelysource of the autocorrelation patterns.     

Mean reversion in Southeast Asian stock markets

This paper assesses the predictable component of South East Asian stock markets using a bootstrap resampling method to estimate the small sample distributions of variance ratio statistics. We find evidence of mean reversion in long horizon dollar adjusted excess returns. The robustness of the results is assessed by adjusting stock returns for potential time-varying expected returns and partial integration of these emerging markets into world capital markets. In all but one case, mean reversion is shown to be due to either time-variation of risk exposure and prices of risk or partial integration of the local market into world stock markets. These results clearly illustrate the dangers of testing market efficiency without carefully adjusting stock returns for time variation in expected returns and the partial integration of local markets into world markets.     

Testing for monotonicity in expected asset returns

Many postulated relations in finance imply that expected asset returns strictly increase in an underlying characteristic. To examine the validity of such a claim, one needs to take the entire range of the characteristic into account, as is done in the recent proposal of Patton and Timmermann (2010). But their test is only a test for the direction of monotonicity, since it requires the relation to be monotonic from the outset: either weakly decreasing under the null or strictly increasing under the alternative. When the relation is non-monotonic or weakly increasing, the test can break down and falsely ‘establish’ a strictly increasing relation with high probability. We offer some alternative tests that do not share this problem. The behavior of the various tests is illustrated via Monte Carlo studies. We also present empirical applications to real data.     

Asymmetric mean reversion of Bitcoin price returns

Non-linearity is characterised by an asymmetric mean-reverting property, which has been found to be inherent in the short-term return dynamics of stocks. In this paper, we explore as to whether cryptocurrency returns, as represented by Bitcoin, exhibit similar asymmetric reverting patterns for minutely, hourly, daily and weekly returns between June 2010 and February 2018. We identify several differences in the behaviour of Bitcoin price returns in the pre- and post-$1000 sub-periods and evidence of asymmetric reverting patterns in the Bitcoin price returns under all the ANAR models employed, regardless of the data frequency considered. We also present evidence indicating stronger reverting behaviour of negative price returns in terms of both reverting speed and magnitude compared to positive returns and evidence of positive serial correlation with prior positive price returns. Finally, we also investigated asymmetries in Bitcoin price return series' persistence by employing higher order ANAR models, finding evidence of a higher persistence of positive returns than negative returns, a result that further supports the existence of asymmetric reverting behaviour in the Bitcoin price returns.     

Technical indicators and cross-sectional expected returns

This study shows that 14 widely documented technical indicators explain cross-sectional stock returns. These indicators have lower estimation errors than the three-factor Fama–French and historical mean models. The long-short portfolios based on the cross-sectional technical signals generate substantial excess returns. These remain consistent after controlling for well-known cross-sectional return determinants, including momentum, size, book-to-market ratio, investment, and profitability. Our findings suggest that technical indicators play an important role in determining variation in cross-sectional returns.     

Endogenous leverage and expected stock returns

This note clarifies conditions under which endogenous choice of debt induces a negative relation between leverage or default risk and expected stock returns. In the context of the model of George and Hwang [2009. Journal of Financial Economics 96, 56–79], we correct the contention that variation in bankruptcy costs across firms is sufficient. Variation in asset risk parameters can lead to the desired relation, but may not when also controlling for variation in book-to-market ratios. A simple parameterization of cross-sectional heterogeneity in risk and profitability implies a negative association of expected return with leverage and distress risk and a positive association with book-to-market.     

Expected returns and expected dividend growth

We investigate a consumption-based present-value relation that is a function of future dividend growth and find that changing forecasts of dividend growth are an important feature of the post-war U.S. stock market, despite the failure of the dividend–price ratio to uncover such variation. In addition, dividend forecasts are found to covary with changing forecasts of excess stock returns over business cycle frequencies. This covariation is important because positively correlated fluctuations in expected dividend growth and expected returns have offsetting effects on the log dividend–price ratio. The market risk premium and expected dividend growth thus vary considerably more than is apparent using the log divided–price ratio alone as a predictive variable.     

Media tone and expected stock returns

We find that media tone reflects firm-level expected returns—firms with low-negative tone stories over a few months earn higher returns in the medium to long term than do firms with high-negative tone stories. The tone premium is driven by consistent outperformance of low-negative stocks, while high-negative stocks do not produce significant abnormal returns. The media tone effect is associated with some common risk factors, among which the size factor plays a consistent and most significant role. The tone effect also reflects differences in firms' idiosyncratic risk, and there is evidence that it is partially related to mispricing and limits to arbitrage.     

The q-factors and expected bond returns

This study provides new insight into the recent debate on profitability and investment patterns in the cross-section of expected returns. Relying on implied risk premia of U.S. corporate bonds, we document a strong negative relation between exposure to the profitability factor and cost of debt. We do not observe a robust relation between exposure to the investment factor and cost of debt. Our findings are consistent with profitability being a risk factor, but suggest that high profitability implies lower (and not higher) risk. Because the market portfolio consists of all risky assets including corporate bonds, our findings challenge a risk-based explanation for the profitability and investment patterns in stock returns.     

Habit persistence: Explaining cross-sectional variation in returns and time-varying expected returns

This paper uses an iterated GMM approach to estimate and test the consumption based habit persistence model of Campbell and Cochrane [Campbell, J.Y., Cochrane, J.H., 1999. By force of habit: A consumption-based explanation of aggregate stock market behavior. Journal of Political Economy 107, 205–251] on the US stock market. The empirical evidence shows that the model is able to explain the size premium, but fails to explain the value premium. Further, the state variable of the model – the surplus consumption ratio – explains counter-cyclical time-varying expected returns on stocks. The model also produces plausible low real risk-free rates despite high relative risk aversion.     

Is asymmetric mean-reverting pattern in stock returns systematic? Evidence from Pacific-basin markets in the short-horizon

This paper applies asymmetric nonlinear smooth transition generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ANST-GARCH) models to the analysis of mean-reversion and time-varying volatility in weekly index returns of the stock markets of nine countries in the Pacific-basin. It finds that the returns exhibit an asymmetric pattern of return reversals, viz., on average, a negative return reverts more quickly, with a greater magnitude, to a positive return than a positive return reverting to a negative one. The asymmetric pattern of return reversals is directly associated with the unequal pricing behavior on the part of investors. Following a negative return shock, investors do not appear to require any additional premium to the leverage effect; instead they actually neutralize the risk in the form of a reduced premium! The reduction in risk premium causes not only the current stock price to rise but also the realized negative return to revert faster with a greater magnitude.     

The output gap and expected security returns

This paper analyzes the impact of the output gap on market excess returns. The output gap is usually defined as the deviation of output from potential output that is indicated by the trend output. However, this study departs from the common approach of calculating the output gap based on a simple trend line. It uses a flexible data-driven weighting scheme, and it uses only the available information that corresponds to each forecasting origin to derive the output gap. Overall, the proposed output gap is a strong predictor of U.S. market excess returns.     

Consumption growth and time-varying expected stock returns

When the consumption growth rate is measured based upon fourth quarter data, it tracks predictable variation in future excess stock returns. Low fourth quarter consumption growth rates predict high future excess stock returns such that expected returns are high at business cycle troughs and low at business cycle peaks. The consumption growth rate loses predictive power when it is measured based upon other quarters. This is consistent with the insight of Jagannathan and Wang [2007. Journal of Finance 62, 1623–1661] that investors tend to review their consumption and investment plans during the end of each calendar year, and at possibly random times in between. The consumption growth rate measured based upon fourth quarter data is a much stronger predictive variable than benchmark predictive variables such as the dividend–price ratio, the term spread, and the default spread.     

Liquidity risk and expected corporate bond returns

This paper studies the pricing of liquidity risk in the cross section of corporate bonds for the period from January 1994 to March 2009. The average return on bonds with high sensitivities to aggregate liquidity exceeds that for bonds with low sensitivities by about 4% annually. The positive relation between expected corporate bond returns and liquidity beta is robust to the effects of default and term betas, liquidity level, and other bond characteristics, as well as to different model specifications, test methodologies, and a variety of liquidity measures. The results suggest that liquidity risk is an important determinant of expected corporate bond returns.     

Extreme downside risk and expected stock returns

We propose a measure for extreme downside risk (EDR) to investigate whether bearing such a risk is rewarded by higher expected stock returns. By constructing an EDR proxy with the left tail index in the classical generalized extreme value distribution, we document a significantly positive EDR premium in cross-section of stock returns even after controlling for market, size, value, momentum, and liquidity effects. The EDR premium is more prominent among glamor stocks and when high market returns are expected. High-EDR stocks are generally characterized by high idiosyncratic risk, large downside beta, lower coskewness and cokurtosis, and high bankruptcy risk. The EDR premium persists after these characteristics are controlled for. Although Value at Risk (VaR) plays a significant role in explaining the EDR premium, it cannot completely subsume the EDR effect.