Tilt Nickels to Diamonds: An Orthogonalization Approach
Journal of Investment Management, 2019, 17 (4), 1-19.
30 Pages Posted: 14 Apr 2014 Last revised: 25 Sep 2019
Date Written: March 1, 2019
Abstract
Alternative index products often achieve improved performance at the cost of increased exposure to risk. In this study, we propose a portfolio tilting strategy that alleviates the risks inherent to alternative indices by projecting fundamental factors on risk factors to purge the influence of risk factors. We argue that more efficient indices can be built on the resulting orthogonalized fundamental factors and show that a tilted equity index using return on assets, long-term debt, and net sales as fundamental factors outperforms the Russell 1000 index by 120 basis points from 1987 to 2014.
Keywords: Indexing, Smart Beta, Tilting, Enhanced Index, Portfolio Efficiency
JEL Classification: G11, G12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation