Retail investors are individual, non-professional investors who buy and sell securities, such as stocks, options, and mutual funds, for their personal accounts rather than for an organization or institution. Unlike institutional investors, who manage large sums of money on behalf of clients or large entities, retail investors typically trade in …

An extreme loss event in the stock market refers to a sudden and significant decline in stock prices, often resulting from unexpected and severe market conditions. These events, also known as market crashes or financial crises, can be triggered by a variety of factors including economic downturns, geopolitical tensions, natural …

In the financial literature and media, we often encounter the concept of term structure, such as the term structure of volatility and the term structure of interest rates. Reference introduced the concept of term structure of expected stock returns. Essentially, the author utilizes options data to first calculate a …

Cross-sectional momentum is an investment strategy that involves ranking and selecting assets based on their past performance relative to their peers. Unlike time-series momentum, which looks at an individual asset’s past performance in isolation, cross-sectional momentum compares multiple assets to each other. Investors buy the top-performing assets and sell the …

Calendar anomalies in the stock market refer to recurring patterns or anomalies that occur at specific times of the year, month, or week, which cannot be explained by traditional financial theories. These anomalies often defy the efficient market hypothesis and provide opportunities for investors to exploit market inefficiencies. Some well-known …

Pairs trading involves identifying two related securities, typically stocks, that have historically exhibited a strong correlation in price movements. Traders then look for deviations from this historical relationship, buying the underperforming security while simultaneously selling the outperforming one. The goal is to profit from the convergence of prices back to …

An investment portfolio can be constructed by using momentum, minimum-variance, or mean-variance approaches. It involves combining assets in a way that optimizes risk and return. Each approach offers its own trade-offs: momentum strategies may suffer during market reversals, while minimum-variance portfolios may underperform in strongly trending markets. Meanwhile, mean-variance portfolios …

Portfolio optimization is an important aspect of investment management, aiming to construct portfolios that offer the best risk-return trade-off based on an investor’s objectives and constraints. Various optimization techniques, such as mean-variance optimization, Black-Litterman model, and risk parity, are employed to generate optimal portfolios tailored to different investment goals and …

The low volatility anomaly in the stock market refers to the phenomenon where stocks with lower volatility tend to provide higher risk-adjusted returns compared to their higher volatility counterparts, contrary to traditional financial theories. Various explanations have been proposed for this anomaly, including investor behavioral biases, such as overestimating the …

Volatility clustering is a phenomenon observed in financial markets where periods of high volatility tend to cluster together, followed by periods of low volatility. This pattern suggests that extreme price movements are not randomly distributed over time but rather occur in clusters or groups. Volatility clustering has undergone extensive study …