Quantitative Investing and Market Instability

56 Pages Posted: 9 Nov 2018 Last revised: 10 Jun 2023

See all articles by William Beggs

William Beggs

Knauss School of Business, University of San Diego

Jonathan Brogaard

University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business

Austin Hill-Kleespie

G. Brint Ryan College of Business, University of North Texas

Date Written: May 2, 2023

Abstract

The May 2010 Flash Crash and August 2007 Quant Meltdown raised concerns about the impact of quantitative investment strategies on market instability. We examine whether quantitative investing dampens or exacerbates market instability by focusing on mutual fund fire sales. We find that quantitative fund fire sales have a much larger impact on market instability than fire sales by traditional mutual funds. For the same magnitude fire sale, quantitative funds’ impact is more than eight times as large. The larger impact is due to quantitative funds’ reliance on similar trading strategies.

Keywords: Investment management, security selection, quantitative funds, mutual funds, fire sales, herding, market stability

JEL Classification: G11, G23, G40

Suggested Citation

Beggs, William and Brogaard, Jonathan and Hill-Kleespie, Austin, Quantitative Investing and Market Instability (May 2, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3281447 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3281447

William Beggs

Knauss School of Business, University of San Diego ( email )

5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
United States

HOME PAGE: http://wcbeggs.com

Jonathan Brogaard (Contact Author)

University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business ( email )

1645 E Campus Center Dr
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9303
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.jonathanbrogaard.com

Austin Hill-Kleespie

G. Brint Ryan College of Business, University of North Texas

Denton, TX 76203
United States

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