Asset Allocation and Bad Habits
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_133D75AE6429
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Asset Allocation and Bad Habits
Journal
Rotman International Journal of Pension Management
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Volume
7
Number
2
Pages
16-27
Language
english
Abstract
This article documents the “bad habits” of investors in asset allocation practices. Whereas financial markets exhibit momentum over multi-month horizons but more reversion to the mean over multi-year horizons, many investors act like momentum investors even at these longer horizons. Both these patterns are well known anecdotally but have not been well documented statistically, especially together. This article therefore addresses two empirical questions. First, How do funds reallocate based on past returns? The authors provide direct evidence using the CEM Benchmarking data on pension fund target allocations over a 22-year period. Second, What are momentum/reversal patterns in financial markets returns? Evidence is provided using more than a century of data. Merging the findings from the two data sets provides evidence consistent with the premise that investors chase returns over multi-year horizons, which is likely to hurt their long-run performance. However, the statistical evidence on pro-cyclical multi-year asset allocations and multi-year mean reversion patterns in asset-class returns is on the borderline of statistical significance.
Keywords
Asset Allocation, Mean Reversion, Momentum Investing, Pension Fund, Return Attribution
Create date
21/06/2017 10:10
Last modification date
21/08/2019 5:12