Learning to Play Offense and Defense: Combining Value and Momentum from the Bottom Up, and the Top Down

Abstract

Sorting stocks based on value and momentum factors historically has led to outperformance over the broad US stock market. However, any long-only strategy is subject to similar volatility and drawdowns as the S&P 500. Drawdowns of 50%, or even 60-90% make implementation of a stock strategy very challenging. Is there a way to add value on stock selection, but also reduce volatility and drawdowns of a long only strategy with hedging techniques? In this paper we examine the possibility of following a strategy that combines aggressive offense and smart defense to target outsized returns with manageable risk and drawdowns.

Keywords: stocks, bonds, futures, hedging, tail, swan, risk, value, momentum, ETFs