

markets, as well as most developed markets. Since then, momentum trading strategies that exploit this phenomenon have been consistently profitable in the U.S. They also showed that stocks with high earnings momentum outperform stocks with low earnings momentum. Published in 1993, the authors established substantial evidence that stocks that perform the best (worst) over a 3 to 12-month period tend to continue to perform well (poorly) over the subsequent 3 to 12 months. Perhaps, the oldest and most well-known paper about the momentum anomaly is “ Momentum” by Jagadeesh and Titman. The momentum factor effect has been well-researched over the years, and we want to show you some of the research findings. Understanding why the momentum factor effect works in stocks While investors can choose any period for their n and x, 12-month momentum and 1-month holding period seem to be very popular.Īcademic research has shown that the momentum effect works in stock markets of both developed countries and emerging economies, and it seems to work for both small-cap and large-cap stocks. The idea is to rank stocks based on their n-month returns and then buy and hold the stocks with the strongest momentum for x months. stock market, as well as other stock markets. This is because there is a tendency for stocks that have performed well in the past would continue to perform well while stocks that have performed poorly in the past would continue to perform badly.īuying past winners and selling past losers have been proven to be a profitable strategy in the U.S. Investors who follow this strategy aim to buy stocks that are rising and sell them when they look to have peaked or are no longer rising. Momentum itself refers to the rate of change of a stock’s price in any direction - that is, the inertia of a price to remain in a trend (either rising or falling) for a particular length of time.īasically, momentum trading is a trend-following strategy that seeks to enter a trade when the trend is picking up steam. In the stock market, the momentum anomaly is a term used to describe the tendency for rising stocks to keep rising and falling ones to keep falling, at least for the foreseeable future. Overall, return signal momentum can benefit investors as an effective strategy for speculation and hedging.Read More What does the momentum anomaly mean?
Momentum drawdown series#
Investment strategies based on return signal momentum result in higher returns and Sharpe ratios and lower drawdown relative to time series momentum and other benchmark strategies. An empirical application using a universe of commodity and financial futures offers supporting evidence for the existence of such momentum. This momentum is driven primarily by sign dependence, which is positively related to average return and negatively related to return volatility.

Overall, return signal momentum can benefit investors as an effective strategy for speculation and hedging.ĪB - A new type of momentum based on the signs of past returns is introduced. N2 - A new type of momentum based on the signs of past returns is introduced.
