PERFORMANCE OF SMART BETA ETFS IN THE U.S. MARKET: 2009-2019

Authors

  • David K. Ding Singapore Management University
  • Angkawipa Kangsanarak Chulalongkorn University
  • Chiraphol N. Chiyachantana Singapore Management University
  • Tanakorn Likitapiwat Chulalongkorn University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47941/ijf.935

Keywords:

Smart betas, Exchange traded funds, Excess returns, Risk-adjusted returns

Abstract

Purpose: This paper empirically analyses the performance of smart beta exchange traded funds (ETFs) through the absolute return, relative return, and risk-adjusted return over the decade from 2009 to 2019.

Methodology: Using a sample of smart beta ETFs in the U.S. stock market, we examine the components of the risk factors in a smart beta strategy. 

Results: Our results show that a smart beta strategy is not able to maintain a persistent performance over the period examined. Moreover, there is not a single year that smart beta ETFs could generate an abnormal return that is statistically significant. The evidence illustrates that returns of smart beta ETFs do not significantly beat the S&P 500 market benchmark on an absolute, relative, and risk-adjusted return basis.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

David K. Ding, Singapore Management University

Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Angkawipa Kangsanarak, Chulalongkorn University

Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy

Chiraphol N. Chiyachantana, Singapore Management University

Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Tanakorn Likitapiwat, Chulalongkorn University

Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy

References

Alford, Andrew W. "Indexing and the evolution of active management." Goldman Sachs Asset Management, February 2017: 1-7.

Ang, Andrew, "Factor investing." Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 13-42, 2013.

Asness, Clifford, Andrea Frazzini, Ronen Israel, and Tobias Moskowitz. "Fact, fiction, and momentum investing." The Journal of Portfolio Management 40, no. 5 (2014): 75-92.

Baker, Malcolm, and Jeffrey Wurgler. "Investor sentiment and the cross"section of stock returns." The Journal of Finance 61, no. 4 (2006): 1645-1680.

Barberis, Nicholas, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny. 1998. "A model of investor sentiment." Journal of Financial Economics 49 (3): 307-343.

Bender, Jennifer, Remy Briand, Dimitris Melas, and Raman Aylur Subramanian. "Foundations of factor investing." Available at SSRN 2543990 (2013).

Bioy, Hortense, and Gordon Rose. "Securities lending in physical replication ETFs: A review of providers' practices." Morningstar ETF Research (2012): 1-33.

Black, Fischer. "Return and the beta." Journal of Portfolio Management 20, no. 1 (1993): 8-18.

Bruce, I., and Kenneth N. Levy. "Smart beta: too good to be true?" Journal of Financial Perspectives 3, no. 2 (2015).

Cai, Lixin, Yong Jin, Qiulin Qi, and Xin Xu. "A comprehensive study on smart beta strategies in the A-share market." Applied Economics 50, no. 55 (2018): 6024-6033.

Carhart, Mark M. "On persistence in mutual fund performance." The Journal of Finance 52, no. 1 (1997): 57-82.

Da, Zhi, and Sophie Shive. "Exchange traded funds and asset return correlations." European Financial Management 24, no. 1 (2018): 136-168.

Edwards, Ward. "Conservatism in human information processing." Formal Representation of Human Judgment (1968).

Fama, Eugene F., and Kenneth French. "The cross-section of expected stock returns." Journal of Finance 47, no. 2 (1992): 427-465.

Fama, Eugene F., and Kenneth R. French. "The anatomy of value and growth stock returns." Financial Analysts Journal 63, no. 6 (2007): 44-54.

Fama, Eugene F., and Kenneth R. French. "Dissecting anomalies with a five-factor model." The Review of Financial Studies 29, no. 1 (2016): 69-103.

Fong, H. Gifford. The World of Hedge Funds: Characteristics and Analysis. World Scientific, 2005.

Fuller, Russell J., Raife Giovinazzo, and Yining Tung. "The stable ROE portfolio: An alternative equity index strategy based on common sense security analysis." The Journal of Portfolio Management 40, no. 5 (2014): 135-145.

Glushkov, Denys. "How smart are smart beta ETFs? Analysis of relative performance and factor exposure." Analysis of Relative Performance and Factor Exposure (2015).

Green, Jeremiah, J. Hand, and Frank Zhang. "The remarkable multidimensionality in the cross-section of expected US stock returns." Available at SSRN 2262374 (2014).

Hong, Harrison, Terence Lim, and Jeremy C. Stein. "Bad news travels slowly: Size, analyst coverage, and the profitability of momentum strategies." The Journal of Finance 55, no. 1 (2000): 265-295.

Hsu, Jason, Vitali Kalesnik, and Feifei Li. "An investor's guide to smart beta strategies." AAII Journal 12, no. 2012 (2012): 11-16.

Investment Company Institute. "ETF basics and structure: FAQs." https://www.ici.org/faqs/faq/etfs/faqs_etfs, 2015.

Jacobs, Bruce I. "INVITED EDITORIAL: Is Smart Beta State of the Art?" The Journal of Portfolio Management 41, no. 4 (2015): 1-3.

Jacobs, Bruce I., and Kenneth N. Levy. "Disentangling equity return regularities: New insights and investment opportunities." Financial Analysts Journal 44, no. 3 (1988): 18-43.

Johnson, Ben, Hortense Bioy, and Dimitar Boyadzhiev. "Assessing the true cost of strategic-beta ETFs." The Journal of Index Investing 7, no. 1 (2016): 35-48.

Kahn, Ronald N., and Michael Lemmon. "Making smart decisions about smart beta." White paper, BlackRock (2014).

Morningstar. "Morningstar, Inc. reports fourth-quarter, full-year 2018 financial results." 2019.

Pace, Desmond, Jana Hili, and Simon Grima. "Active versus passive investing: An empirical study on the U.S. and European mutual funds and ETFs." In Grima, Simon and Frank Bezzina, eds. Contemporary Issues in Bank Financial Management. Emerald Group Publishing, 2016.

Ratcliffe, Ronald, Paolo Miranda, and Andrew Ang. "Capacity of smart beta strategies from a transaction cost perspective." The Journal of Index Investing 8, no. 3 (2017): 39-50.

Richard, Jean-Charles, and Thierry Roncalli. "Smart beta: Managing diversification of minimum variance portfolios." In Risk-Based and Factor Investing, pp. 31-63. Elsevier, 2015.

Securities and Exchange Commission. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Fiscal Year 2013 Agency Financial Report, 2013.

Stevenson, David. "FFs"”Smart beta's big sins and how to avoid them." Citiwire, https://citywireusa.com/professional-buyer/news/david-stevenson-ffs-smart-betas-big-sins-and-how-to-avoid-them/a1214130, 2019.

Strauts, T. (2013). Momentum Investing with ETFs. http://ibd.morningstar.com/article/ article.asp?id=592439&CN=brf295

Downloads

Published

2022-07-19

How to Cite

Ding, D. K., Kangsanarak, A. ., Chiyachantana, C. N., & Likitapiwat, T. (2022). PERFORMANCE OF SMART BETA ETFS IN THE U.S. MARKET: 2009-2019. International Journal of Finance, 7(2), 83–109. https://doi.org/10.47941/ijf.935

Issue

Section

Articles