Investing in risk factors – are factor indexes useful vehicles for factor investing?
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2017
Department
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Mcode
Degree programme
Finance
Language
en
Pages
48
Series
Abstract
This thesis studies the usefulness of MSCI factor indexes in investors’ portfolios in terms of overall performance and portfolio diversification. Since the introduction of Fama and French risk factors and multifactor model, risk factor investing has become a popular topic in financial theory as well as in practice. Until recently risk factor investing could only reasonable be done by active managers. Factor indexes are relatively new instruments for factor investing and they offer a transparent and cost efficient alternative for factor investing. Risk factor investing can offer many benefits for investors in theory but is this the case also in practice? I use monthly return data for MSCI factor indexes, Fama-French-Carhart (FFC) risk factors and long-only factor portfolios in the US market from 1996 to 2016. MSCI factor index data is mostly backtracked. FFC risk factors are used as benchmarks for factor indexes. I use various methods to analyse the data in order to reveal the real nature of MSCI factor indexes. The results show that MSCI factor indexes do not appear to be able to provide clear benefits of factor investing for investors. The tilt towards the chosen factor is too mild and the market exposure is too heavy in order to deliver risk factor premiums. Also, the correlations between different factor indexes are so high that risk-factor based diversification cannot be executed with MSCI factor indexes.Description
Thesis advisor
Nyberg, PeterKeywords
factor investing, risk factor, diversification, smart beta ETF, factor index