Factor allocation

Investing has been a reliable way to compound one’s inheritance over ages known throughout human history. But different monetary and fiscal situations, especially during times of uncertainty and extreme stress, force both individuals and institutions to adjust their financial habits. A recent research paper written by Guido Baltussen, Laurens Swinkels, and Pim van Vliet analyzed large samples of data starting from the 19th century and brought unique perspectives on how various asset classes perform during “quiet, good” periods and, on the other side, economic turmoil. Research summarized very actual topics of investing during those different cycles and what inflation does to returns across equities, bonds, and cash.

Quantpedia has already covered a countless number of factor investing strategies and articles, from strategies in our Screener to multiple blog posts. Therefore, we can confidently say that we do like factor investing. However, there is always new research with a unique point of view. For example, we recently found a paper focused on the decay of the factor exposures of equity factor strategies. The study examines five factors: Value, Momentum, Quality, Investment, and Low Volatility, across 12 developed and emerging markets over a 20-year period. This research aims to find out how long it takes for a factor to decay after the portfolio is assembled. In other words, how often should the portfolio be rebalanced? 

Capturing the systematic premia is the main aim of many quantitative traders. However, investors tend to overlook an important factor when backtesting. Trading costs are an essential part of every trade, and yet even when we consider them, we only use an approximation. The recent article from Angana Jacob (SigTech) looks into how heavily trading costs affect the overall return of various strategies and analyzes multiple ways of implementing trading costs into the trading rules themselves.