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This paper searches for stochastic trends and returns predictability in key energy asset markets in Europe over the last decade. The financial assets include Intercontinental Exchange Futures Europe (ICE-ECX) carbon emission allowances (the main driver of interest), European Energy Exchange (EEX) Coal ARA futures and ICE Brent oil futures (reflecting the two largest energy sources in Europe), Stoxx600 Europe Oil and Gas Index (the main energy stock index in Europe), EEX Power Futures (representing electricity), and Stoxx600 Europe Renewable Energy index (representing the sunrise energy industry). This paper finds that the Moving Average (MA) technique beats random timing for carbon emission allowances, coal, and renewable energy. In these asset markets, there seems to be significant returns predictability of stochastic trends in prices. The results are mixed for Brent oil, and there are no predictable trends for the Oil and Gas index. Stochastic trends are also missing in the electricity market as there is an ARFIMA-FIGARCH process in the day-ahead power prices. The empirical results are interesting for several reasons. We identified the data generating process in EU electricity prices as fractionally integrated (0.5), with a fractionally integrated Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) process in the residual. This is a novel finding. The order of integration of order 0.5 implies that the process is not stationary but less non-stationary than the non-stationary I(1) process, and that the process has long memory. This is probably because electricity cannot be stored. Returns predictability with MA rules requires stochastic trends in price series, indicating that the asset prices should obey the I(1) process, that is, to facilitate long run returns predictability. However, all the other price series tested in the paper are I(1)-processes, so that their returns series are stationary. The empirical results are important because they give a simple answer to the following question: When are MA rules useful? The answer is that, if significant stochastic trends develop in prices, long run returns are predictable, and market timing performs better than does random timing.

We study non-linear predictability of stock returns arising from the dividend-price ratio and its implications for asset allocation decisions. Using data from five countries — U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan — we find empirical evidence supporting non-linear and time-varying models for the equity risk premium. Building on this, we examine several model specifications that can account for non-linear return predictability, including Markov switching models, regression trees, random forests and neural networks. Although in-sample return regressions and portfolio allocation results support the use of non-linear predictability models, the out-of-sample evidence is notably weaker, highlighting the difficulty in exploiting non-linear predictability in real time.

We examine firm value and performance implications of the growing trend of nontechnology companies engaging in activities relating to digital technologies. We measure digital activities in firms based on the disclosure of digital words in the business description section of 10-Ks. Digital activities are associated with a market-to-book ratio 8%–26% higher than industry peers, and only 25% of the differences in market-to-book is explained by accounting capitalization restrictions. To control for selection bias, we implement lagged dependent variable and IV regressions, and our market-to-book findings are robust to these specifications. Portfolios formed on digital activity disclosure earn a Daniel et al. The Journal of Finance 52 (3): 1035–1058 ( 1997 )-adjusted return of 30% over a three-year horizon and a monthly alpha of 44-basis-points. On the other hand, we find weak evidence of near-term, positive improvements in fundamental performance, as we find some evidence of interim productivity increases but declines in sales growth conditional on digital activities.

Recent empirical evidence suggests that the variance risk premium predicts aggregate stock market returns. We demonstrate that statistical finite sample biases cannot “explain” this apparent predictability. Further corroborating the existing evidence of the United States, we show that country-specific regressions for France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom result in quite similar patterns. Defining a “global” variance risk premium, we uncover even stronger predictability and almost identical cross-country patterns through the use of panel regressions.

We measure “good” and “bad” variance premia that capture risk compensations for the realized variation in positive and negative market returns, respectively. The two variance premium components jointly predict excess returns over the next one and two years with statistically significant positive (negative) coefficients on the good (bad) component. The R 2 s reach about 10% for aggregate equity and portfolio returns and 20% for corporate bond returns. To explain the new empirical evidence, we develop a model that highlights the differential impact of upside and downside risk on equity and variance risk premia. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2890 . This paper was accepted by Neng Wang, finance.

Stock and options markets can disagree about a stock’s value because of informed trading in options and/or price pressure in the stock. The predictability of stock returns based on this cross-market discrepancy in values is especially strong when accompanied by stock price pressure, and it does not depend on trading in options. We argue that option-implied prices provide an anchor for fundamental stock values that helps to distinguish stock price movements resulting from pressure versus news. Overall, our results are consistent with stock price pressure being the primary driver of the option price-based stock return predictability. This paper was accepted by Tyler Shumway, finance.

What predicts returns on assets with \"hard-to-value\" fundamentals such as Bitcoin and stocks in new industries? We are the first to propose an equilibrium model that shows how technical analysis can arise endogenously via rational learning, providing a theoretical foundation for using technical analysis in practice. We document that ratios of prices to their moving averages forecast daily Bitcoin returns in and out of sample. Trading strategies based on these ratios generate an economically significant alpha and Sharpe ratio gains relative to a buy-and-hold position. Similar results hold for smallcap, young-firm, and low analyst-coverage stocks as well as NASDAQ stocks during the dotcom era.

Price movements in industrial metals such as copper and aluminum predict stock returns. Increasing industrial metal prices are good news for equity markets in recessions and bad news in expansions. A one-standard-deviation increase in industrial metal returns predicts a price drop of one and a half percent in monthly stock market returns in expansions and an increase of around a half percent during recessions. The predictability is distinct to and compares favorably with that from more established predictors. This paper was accepted by Lauren Cohen, finance.

We investigate the dynamic problem of how much attention an investor should pay to news in order to learn about stock-return predictability and maximize expected lifetime utility. We show that the optimal amount of attention is U-shaped in the return predictor, increasing with both uncertainty and the magnitude of the predictive coefficient and decreasing with stock-return volatility. The optimal risky asset position exhibits a negative hedging demand that is hump shaped in the return predictor. Its magnitude is larger when uncertainty increases but smaller when stock-return volatility increases. We test and find empirical support for these theoretical predictions. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.