Firm size is an essential factor in examining the relation between returns and idiosyncratic volatilities. This paper documents that, when the idiosyncratic volatility is specified by firm size, the size-portfolio idiosyncratic volatility is statistically significant in explaining the future...

This chapter reviews short selling practices in emerging markets and market performances during the global financial crisis. In contrast to developed markets, many emerging countries do not permit short selling, which can pose severe limitations on market liquidity. We compare market volatility,...

The meltdown in liquidity in the corporate debt market in the second half of 2008, the related widening in spreads, and concerns over use (and misuse) of credit default swaps may have created both cyclical and secular opportunities for fixed income investors

In 1994, Josef Lakonishok, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny published a landmark study investigating the performance of value stocks relative to glamour securities in the United States over a 26-year period. Their research concluded that value stocks tended to outperform glamour stocks by wide...

The performance of a market timer can be measured through the Treynor and Mazuy (1966) model, provided the regression alpha is properly adjusted by using the cost of an option-based replicating portfolio, as shown by Hübner (2010). We adapt this approach to the case of multi-factor models with...

This paper analyzes the life cycles of hedge funds. Using the Lipper TASS database it provides category and fund specific factors that affect the survival probability of hedge funds. The findings show that in general, investors chasing individual fund performance, thus increasing fund flows,...

In the past decade, financial institutions have assumed an ever greater role in energy derivatives (or “paper”) markets. Numerous recent studies provide novel evidence of this “financialization” and analyze the extent to which it helps explain an important aspect of the distribution of...

In the past decade, financial institutions have assumed an ever greater role in energy derivatives (or “paper”) markets. Numerous recent studies provide novel evidence of this “financialization” and analyze the extent to which it helps explain an important aspect of the distribution of...

We propose a model of volatility tail behavior, in which the pricing measure dominates the physical measure in both tails of the volatility distribution and, hence, the derived pricing kernel exhibits an increasing and decreasing region in the volatility dimension. The model features investors...

Equity risk premiums are a central component of every risk and return model in finance and are a key input in estimating costs of equity and capital in both corporate finance and valuation. Given their importance, it is surprising how haphazard the estimation of equity risk premiums remains in...