Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 137 No. 2 2020
Turning alphas into betas: Arbitrage and endogenous risk
Abstract
Using data on asset pricing anomalies, I test the idea that the act of arbitrage turns “alphas” into “betas”: Assets with high initial abnormal returns attract more arbitrage and covary endogenously more with systematic factors that arbitrage capital is exposed to. This channel explains the exposures of 40 anomaly portfolios to aggregate funding liquidity shocks and arbitrageur wealth portfolio shocks. My results highlight that financial intermediaries that act as asset market arbitrageurs not only price assets given risks, but also actively shape these risks through their trades.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.02.011
- Volume
- 137
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 550-570
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref