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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 104 No. 2 2012

The short of it: Investor sentiment and anomalies

Robert F. Stambaugh1; Jianfeng Yu2; Yu Yuan1

1 University of Pennsylvania · 2 University of Minnesota

open access

Abstract

This study explores the role of investor sentiment in a broad set of anomalies in cross-sectional stock returns. We consider a setting in which the presence of market-wide sentiment is combined with the argument that overpricing should be more prevalent than underpricing, due to short-sale impediments. Long-short strategies that exploit the anomalies exhibit profits consistent with this setting. First, each anomaly is stronger (its long-short strategy is more profitable) following high levels of sentiment. Second, the short leg of each strategy is more profitable following high sentiment. Finally, sentiment exhibits no relation to returns on the long legs of the strategies.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.12.001
Volume
104
Issue
2
Pages
288-302
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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