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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 44 No. 3 2009

Dynamic Style Preferences of Individual Investors and Stock Returns

Alok Kumar

The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

This study shows that individual investors systematically shift their preferences across extreme style portfolios (small vs. large, value vs. growth). These preference shifts are influenced by past style returns and earnings differentials, and advice from investment newsletters, but are unaffected by innovations in macroeconomic variables or shifts in expectations about future cash flows. Furthermore, investors’ dynamic style preferences influence returns along multiple dimensions: i) the contemporaneous relation between style returns and style-level preference shifts is strong, ii) there is weak evidence of style return predictability, and iii) the correlations among stocks within a style increase when investors move into or out of the style with greater intensity. Overall, the results indicate that stock categorization influences investors’ portfolio decisions and stock returns.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109009990020
Volume
44
Issue
3
Pages
607-640
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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