If you're keen on pursuing such
a high volatility strategy, you'll need an iron stomach and you might want to do it with only a small portion of your portfolio.
Defensive low volatility strategies have shown to deliver superior returns with exposure to much lower risk over aggressive
high volatility strategies.
Not exact matches
While markets deal with more
volatility,
higher rates and rising inflation, BMO Capital markets says it has a
strategy to help you sleep at night.
The 75/25
strategy slightly outperformed the 60/40 portfolio with
higher volatility, but that's to be expected given the
higher allocation to stocks.
While options that are 5 - 10 % out of the money will have less value than those that are just slightly out of the money, the
higher volatility should make the puts valuable enough to make the
strategy worthwhile.
Here we show that traders with exogenously induced short - term elevations in cortisol adopt riskier investment
strategies and that
higher overall cortisol in the market predicts
higher aggregate mispricing and
volatility.
As we discuss in detail in the book, while much improved, Quality and Price is not a perfect
strategy: the better returns are attended by
higher volatility and worse drawdowns.
Remember, alpha is a byproduct of an inefficient market, and in our view
higher volatility is an indication of greater market inefficiency — hence greater opportunity for active investments like hedged
strategies to succeed.
The long / short
strategy generated excess returns of 45 basis points per month, 50 %
higher than the 31 basis points per month generated by the unconditional quality
strategy, despite running at lower
volatility (10.4 % as opposed to 12.2 %).
But for now, investors can take advantage of the market's
volatility by implementing a
strategy to buy low and sell
high.
As equities have ground ever
higher over the past year, very large short -
volatility positions have been building in the markets — largely in
volatility - targeting
strategies employed by institutional investors and leveraged exchange - traded products geared toward individuals.
The long / short
strategy based on the joint quality and value signal generated excess returns of 61 basis points per month, twice that generated by the quality or value signals alone and a third
higher than the market, despite running at a
volatility of only 9.7 %.
That's extraordinary in a super choppy market, but it is exactly the kind of
strategy that thrives during periods of
high volatility.
«Friday's move, on its own, was significant as it pushed realized
volatility higher, which is a signal for many
volatility targeting
strategies to de-risk.
TAIL
strategy offers the potential advantage of buying more puts when
volatility is low and fewer puts when
volatility is
high.
In its proprietary trading, Systematic
Strategies primary focus in on equity and volatility strategies, both low and high
Strategies primary focus in on equity and
volatility strategies, both low and high
strategies, both low and
high frequency.
They test this
strategy on combinations of seven indexes comprising a spectrum of risk (listed lowest to
highest): BofA Merrill Lynch 5 - 7 Year Treasury Index (Treasuries); CBOE S&P 500 Buy - Write Index (BuyWrite); S&P 500 Low
Volatility Index (Low
Volatility); S&P 500 Index (SP500); Russell 2000 Index (R2000); Morgan Stanley Cyclicals Index (Cyclicals); and, S&P 500
High Beta Index (
High Beta).
Options traders can concentrate on net buying
strategies during periods of low
volatility and shift to net selling
strategies during periods of
high volatility.
A subscriber, noting an article on slowing down intrinsic (absolute or time series) momentum for SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) when its return
volatility is relatively
high, suggested doing the same for the Simple Asset Class ETF Momentum
Strategy (SACEMS).
The Litman Gregory folks started with a common premise: «In the years ahead, we believe there will be mediocre returns and
higher volatility from stocks, and low returns from bonds... [we sought] «alternative»
strategies that we believe are not highly dependent on tailwinds from stocks and bonds to generate returns.»
The prospect of lower stock returns and
higher volatility going forward suggests for Russ that investors should consider
strategies such as carry, or yield, to boost risk adjusted returns.
Low -
volatility strategies typically have a
high allocation to utilities, healthcare and consumer staples stocks, or to «deep value» equities.
You can also find
strategy indexes that allow you to invest for specific goals, such as low
volatility or
high dividend return.
Morgane Delledonne reviews the current market conditions and the ETF
strategies that can be employed to improve portfolio outcomes, including; managing duration in a rising interest rate environment, achieving superior yields through quality screening and harvesting
high option premiums, whilst dampening portfolio
volatility.
However, while it is true that momentum - based
strategies come with traits such as increased
volatility and
higher turnover, they may have a place for a wide range of investors.
The unconstrained
strategy can be thought of in two ways: always trying to earn a positive return with
high probability (T - bills are the benchmark, if any), or being willing to accept equity - like
volatility while the bond manager sources obscure bonds, or takes large interest rate or credit risks.
Since «smart beta»
strategies exhibit both
higher returns and elevated
volatility compared to the index, naturally a question arises: What is the incremental return per unit of risk of these
strategies compared to that of the index?
I.e., for any profitable
strategy, odds are that it will show
higher returns during periods of
high volatility, so I'd be more interested in something like a Sharpe Ratio per trade when comparing subsets of trades.
In this part of my portfolio I use more risky fixed - income securities, as there is a defensive
strategy to address the
higher volatility of the
high - yield and other more risky bond funds.
Crossover rules may mitigate some unwanted
volatility, but they do not help with the
high turnover that comes with momentum
strategies.
A popular
strategy over the past year has been
high - dividend / low -
volatility funds.
In their March 2018 paper entitled «The Conservative Formula: Quantitative Investing Made Easy», Pim van Vliet and David Blitz propose a stock selection
strategy based on low return
volatility,
high net payout yield and strong price momentum.
Not only does covered call writing (especially the 3mo - 1mo
strategy) earn a
higher return versus the buy - and - hold index portfolio, but it benefits from lower
volatility than the index.
Your investment analysis should include these
high probability value
strategies because they improve returns and lower portfolio
volatility.
The
strategy is designed to contribute to
higher performance and lower
volatility over time.
Portfolios are designed to consistently reflect an investor's risk requirements in all markets and to outperform their benchmarks by protecting capital in two ways: first, under normal market conditions, with
volatility within historical averages, diversification is used to control risk; second, when
volatility is historically
high or low, PŮR uses a proprietary SmartRisk ™
strategy.
Other indexed accounts calculate interest based on a
high water mark, a monthly cap,
volatility control, multiple indexing
strategies, uncapped
strategies, or one of several others available.
A study Barry Feldman and Dhruv Roy, cleraly shows the BXM Index (CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index), a benchmark for an S&P 500 - based covered call
strategy, had slightly
higher returns and significantly less
volatility than the S&P 500 over a time period of almost 16 years, despite the fact that covered calls have a truncated upside in the short term.
Short term trading
strategies tend to do best when they focus on
high volatility stocks.
TAIL
strategy offers the potential advantage of buying more puts when
volatility is low and fewer puts when
volatility is
high.
An absolute return
strategy managed with the aim of delivering
high returns with low
volatility, while maintaining a low correlation to other products.
Here's one equity
strategy that delivers lower
volatility while producing
high profits
Figure 1 shows how
strategies that attempt to manage
volatility or risk gave a
higher Sharpe ratio, with a lower drawdown and
volatility — but, in many cases, also deliver a lower return.
Daniel and Moskowitz (2013) and Barroso and Santa - Clara (2014) show that extreme
volatility tends to be predictive of subsequent momentum crashes and Granger et al. (2014) show how optionality imbedded in a rebalancing
strategy is a timing mechanism that can help generate a
higher return and a
higher Sharpe ratio, albeit at a cost of altering
higher moments.
Low beta or low
volatility strategies have lower absolute risk than the market, but typically come at the cost of
higher relative risk and low vol
strategies tend to have
higher tracking error, which represents the risk that the
strategy deviates from the market for extended periods of time.
However, in these times, we need to remember that we chose a diversified investment
strategy because it provides us with the
highest probability of obtaining our financial goals while exposing us to the least amount of
volatility possible.
The buy - and - hold and profit - chasing
strategies gave the
highest return, but with large increases in
volatility and drawdown.
Risk premia harvesting
strategies are based on the premise that over time implied
volatility trades
higher than what is actually realized in the underlying market.
This is a trend - following
strategy as periods of
high volatility usually coincide with bad returns.
There is evidence that window - dressing has occurred: Some of AQR's principals own both the low - and
high -
volatility versions of the same
strategy, which is strange because it is costlier to own the low -
volatility version per unit of exposure.