Factor investing, also known as style factor investing, is a type of investment strategy that involves grouping stocks together based on certain common characteristics, such as fundamental balance sheet items, historical performance, and statistical properties of stock returns. These characteristics, known as factors, are used to create portfolios that are believed to offer consistent risk-adjusted returns for investors. Factor investing has gained popularity in recent years, with many large asset managers, such as Blackrock, predicting that it will be worth over $3 trillion by 2023.
Factor Investing: The Smart Way to Boost Your Investment Strategy
Factors, or style factors, are characteristics used to group stocks together in investment portfolios. Research and historical data have demonstrated that portfolios based on these factors tend to produce higher risk-adjusted returns than the overall market, as supported by numerous academic studies.
What are factors?
Factors are specific characteristics used to group stocks together in investment portfolios. These characteristics, or rules, are used to capture the factor premium, which is the excess return of a portfolio relative to the overall market. The existence of factor premiums suggests that the efficient market hypothesis, which states that stock prices reflect all current information and are fairly priced, may not hold true. Instead, behavioural biases and certain investment and benchmarking criteria may lead to stock returns exhibiting factor premiums. By investing in factors for the long term, investors can potentially benefit from these premiums and achieve superior returns.
There are several criteria that can be used to determine whether a factor exists in the financial markets. Some of these criteria include:
Persistence: A factor should have a long-term track record of producing excess returns.
Economic intuition: A factor should be based on a logical and sound economic rationale.
Statistical significance: A factor should be statistically significant, meaning that the excess returns it generates are unlikely to be due to random chance.
Robustness: A factor should be robust, meaning that it should be able to withstand changes in market conditions and continue to produce excess returns over time.
Consistency: A factor should be consistent, meaning that it should produce excess returns across different asset classes, time periods, and regions.
By meeting these criteria, a factor can be considered to exist in the financial markets and may be used in factor investing strategies.
Different investment providers may construct their factors, or style factors, differently, using their own heuristic rules and quantitative and financial modelling decisions. As a result, the specific characteristics used to group stocks together and the backtested results of these factors may vary among providers. Despite these differences, the factors should still represent the same underlying concept and be used in similar ways in factor investing strategies.
What are the top 6 factors?
In addition to popular factors such as value, quality, size, and dividend yield, reversion is also a notable factor that is used in factor investing. These factors are believed to exist due to strong behavioural or fundamental reasons and are used to group stocks based on company fundamentals, which can reflect investor preferences. By grouping value, quality, size, and dividend yield together, investors can use these factors to gain exposure to specific characteristics or preferences in the market.
There are many factors that are used in factor investing, and the popularity of each factor may vary depending on market conditions and investor preferences. However, some of the most popular factors include:
Value: This factor refers to stocks that are believed to be undervalued by the market and may offer a higher potential for return. Stocks are typically considered value stocks if they have a low price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio, or price-to-sales ratio.
Quality: This factor refers to stocks that have strong financials and are thought to be less risky than the overall market. Stocks may be considered quality stocks if they have a high return on equity, low debt levels, and strong profitability.
Size: This factor refers to the market capitalization of a stock, with smaller-cap stocks being considered a separate factor from larger-cap stocks. Small-cap stocks are generally considered to be more risky than larger-cap stocks, but they may also offer higher potential returns.
Momentum: This factor refers to stocks that have been performing well in the recent past and are expected to continue to do so in the future. Stocks with strong momentum may be considered attractive to investors who believe in the trend-following strategy.
Dividend yield: This factor refers to the dividends paid by a stock relative to its price. Stocks with a high dividend yield are typically considered to be a safer investment and may be attractive to income-focused investors.
Low volatility is another price-based factor that has been shown to produce higher risk-adjusted returns than stocks with high volatility. This may seem counterintuitive, as it is often thought that riskier stocks offer higher potential returns due to the extra risk taken on by the investor. However, research has shown that low-volatility stocks, or those with historically lower levels of volatility, can actually deliver higher returns in the long run. This phenomenon, known as the low-volatility anomaly, has been observed in multiple countries and has proven to be robust over time.
These are just a few examples of the many factors that are used in factor investing.