Monday, January 26, 2015

Lowest Beta Stocks Have Been Outperforming

Over the past month in the MSCI World Index, stocks with the lowest beta (divided up by deciles) are up 3.9%. Meanwhile, stocks with the highest beta are down 3.8%, creating a 7.7% performance gap between the lowest beta stocks and the highest beta stocks over the past month.  There has been a very clear trend over the past month that the higher beta the stock has the worst it has performed.

MSCI World Index Performance By Beta Decile
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In the emerging markets, the lowest beta stocks have also performed the best over the past month and the highest beta stocks have performed the worst. However, looking at deciles 2-9, there isn't the clear declining performance pattern that we see in the developed markets.

MSCI Emerging Markets Index Performance By Beta Decile
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