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Factor Investing: A Bayesian Hierarchical Approach

Guanhao Feng, Jingyu He

arXiv 4 Feb 2019 · Econometrics · publishedJournal of Econometrics (2021) · 1 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1902.01015 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper investigates asset allocation problems when returns are predictable. We introduce a market-timing Bayesian hierarchical (BH) approach that adopts heterogeneous time-varying coefficients driven by lagged fundamental characteristics. Our approach includes a joint estimation of conditional expected returns and covariance matrix and considers estimation risk for portfolio analysis. The hierarchical prior allows modeling different assets separately while sharing information across assets. We demonstrate the performance of the U.S. equity market. Though the Bayesian forecast is slightly biased, our BH approach outperforms most alternative methods in point and interval prediction. Our BH approach in sector investment for the recent twenty years delivers a 0.92% average monthly returns and a 0.32% significant Jensen`s alpha. We also find technology, energy, and manufacturing are important sectors in the past decade, and size, investment, and short-term reversal factors are heavily weighted. Finally, the stochastic discount factor constructed by our BH approach explains most anomalies.

Citation extraction

33
references
66
in-text mentions
33
distinct cited
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self-citations
10,051
main-text words

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Welch, I. and A. Goyal (2008) A comprehensive look at the empirical performance of equity premium prediction1.00084100%
2Avramov, D. and T. Chordia (2006) Predicting stock returns1.00083100%
3Gu, S., B. Kelly, and D. Xiu (2020) Empirical asset pricing via machine learning0.81142100%
4Feng, G., J. He, X. He, and N. Polson (2020) Deep learning for predicting asset returns self0.73732100%
5Kandel, S. and R. F. Stambaugh (1996) On the predictability of stock returns: an asset-allocation perspective0.73732100%
6Polson, N. G. and B. V. Tew (2000) Bayesian portfolio selection: An empirical analysis of the S&P 500 index 1970–19960.73732100%
7Amihud, Y (2002) Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects0.64422100%
8Avramov, D (2004) Stock return predictability and asset pricing models0.64422100%
9Feng, G., S. Giglio, and D. Xiu (2020) Taming the factor zoo: A test of new factors self0.64422100%
10Hou, K., C. Xue, and L. Zhang (2020) Replicating anomalies0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 33 scored citations.