Smart Equity Investing: Implementing Risk Optimization Techniques on Strategic Beta Portfolios

We examine the performance of risk-optimization techniques on equity style portfolios. To form these portfolios, also called Strategic Beta factors by practitioners and data providers, we group stocks based on size, value and momentum characteristics through either independent or dependent sorting. Overall, performing risk-oriented strategies on style portfolios constructed with a dependent sort deliver greater abnormal returns. On average, we observe these strategies to significantly outperform 42% of the risk-oriented ETFs listed on US exchanges, compared to 31% when the risk-oriented strategies are performed on portfolios formed with an independent sort. We attribute the outperformance yielded by dependent sorting to the fact that it provides a better stratification of the set of stocks’ opportunity and diversification properties.