Financing decisions and market efficiency - Multifactor models of risk

4 important questions on Financing decisions and market efficiency - Multifactor models of risk

What is a self-financing portfolio in the context of selecting portfolios, and why is the first portfolio important?


A self-financing portfolio is one where the investment is funded by its own assets. The first portfolio in the selection is important because it involves a long position in the market portfolio (buying stocks) and a short position in the risk-free asset (borrowing at the risk-free rate). This structure amplifies exposure to market risk, allowing investors to capture the market risk premium more effectively.

What is the book-to-market ratio strategy in self-financing portfolios? What is this portfolio called?

It is a trading strategy that each year buys an equally weighted portfolio of stocks with a book-to-market ratio above the 70th percentile (value stocks) and finances it by short selling stocks below the 30th percentile (growth stocks) based on NYSE rankings. This self-financing portfolio is called the High-Minus-Low (HML) portfolio, and it has historically generated positive risk-adjusted returns.

What is the past returns strategy in terms of self-financing portfolios? What is the portfolio called?

The past returns strategy, also known as the momentum strategy, forms a self-financing portfolio by buying stocks that performed well in the past 6–12 months (winners) and short selling those that performed poorly (losers). This winner-minus-loser (WML) portfolio has historically yielded positive risk-adjusted returns, capturing the momentum effect in stock prices.
o This self-financing portfolio also is known as the prior one-year momentum
(PR1YR) portfolio.
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What is the Fama-French-Carhart (FFC) Factor Specification? How is this formula different from CAPM?

  • The FFC model improves on CAPM by accounting for size, value, and momentum effects. It better explains stock returns than the single-factor CAPM or Fama-French Three-Factor Model. The momentum factor acknowledges that past winners tend to keep winning, a key feature in empirical finance.
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