Source : Ken French Data, JQR Capital calculations Are Multiple Factors Better? Two weeks ago we looked at the idea of combining more than one factor into a multi factor model portfolio. We calculated and presented a correlation matrix showing the average annual correlation between the slopes of the factor payoffs. In this post, we look not at the slopes of the factor payoffs, but of the return streams from investing in just one of the fractiles. We will utilize the best quintile for each factor. This was the smallest quintile (Q1) for the market equity (ME) and investment divided by total assets (Inv2TA) factors. For the other five factors, the best quintile was the highest (Q5). As a reminder, here is the growth of $1 from 1964 to 2022 for ME Q1. Source : Ken French Data, JQR Capital calculations This chart shows the ME factor grew from $1 invested at the beginning of 1964 to $1,420 at the end of 2022. This growth pattern was not all peaches and cream with steep losses in 1968 to 197...

  Our Thanksgiving Message My oldest son and my ex-wife will be traveling to Edinburgh Scotland tomorrow to attend his graduation from a virtual masters program on Friday. In preparation for this momentous event, I decided to brush up on my Scottish history by - of course - watching the popular movie Braveheart. In this epic story, William Wallace loses the love of his life and devotes the rest of his short life to defending one singular idea. FREEDOM was his last word before making the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow Scots. With so much going on in the world, I cannot help but be thankful for how much we have in Hartford, Connecticut, and America. I do not have family in the Middle East, but my heart goes out to those who have been devastated by the conflict between the rival factions. I am grateful for the four day cease fire and hope that this brief respite will last longer than the current pledge. Conflict seems to be a given constant in our “modern” world. I sometimes wonder...

  Source : Ken French, JQR Capital Why Does Correlation Matter? Two weeks ago we explored the inverse relationship between the size of a company (measured using market capitalization) and their annualized stock performance between the years 1964 and 2022. Last week we expanded our view to look at all seven individual factors with data sourced from the Ken French website. In this post, we will address several important questions. Should we use more than one factor in our stock selection model? Which factors tend to “play nice” without stepping on others toes? Is there a limit to the number of factors we can add to our model? Which Factors Performed Best? The chart displayed above shows the performance of the seven individual factors posted on the Ken French Website. A visual review tells us that two of the seven factors had an inverse relationship with performance (the quintile bars slope downward), two of the factors had mildly upward slope, and three of them had strongly upward sl...