Short Selling

AgPa #51: Short Sellers vs. Firms

Go Down Fighting: Short Sellers vs. Firms (2012)
Owen A. Lamont
The Review of Asset Pricing Studies 2(1), URL

I like controversial and (in my opinion) misunderstood topics and this week’s AGNOSTIC Paper examines the next big one: short selling. The paper is unfortunately already more than 10 years old, but it is still a go-to reference for short selling. Apart from that, the fights between firms and short sellers are also quite entertaining – at least from an outsider’s perspective…

  • Short-seller-fighting firms tend to massively underperform
  • The results are robust after controlling for the major factors

Read the Full Post

AgPa #47: Equity Factors without Shorting

When Equity Factors Drop Their Shorts (2020)
David Blitz, Guido Baltussen, Pim van Vliet
Financial Analysts Journal, 76(4), URL

This week’s AGNOSTIC Paper examines the important issue of performance contributions from the long and short legs of the major factor premiums. In English: can we profitably invest in factors without shorting a large number of stocks?

  • The long-legs of factors are more important than the short-legs
  • The same pattern holds in international markets

Read the Full Post