Historical data

For U.S. equities, fixed income, and commodities, reconstructing long-term historical datasets is relatively straightforward, and we have already explored these challenges in several previous studies, including 100 Years of Multi-Asset Trend Following, Extending Historical Daily Bond Data to 100 Years, and Extending Historical Daily Commodities Data to 100 Years. Moreover, the broader methodology of reconstructing missing market histories shares many similarities with the techniques discussed in How to Replicate Any Portfolio. Emerging markets, however, represent a particularly interesting opportunity for historical reconstruction, as reliable long-term data is often unavailable for much of the 20th century despite the growing importance of these markets in modern portfolio construction and asset allocation. In this article, we present the framework we developed to extend emerging market histories in a consistent and economically meaningful way, enabling more robust long-term quantitative research and modelling.