IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finmar/v70y2024ics1386418124000454.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The volatility of stock investor returns

Author

Listed:
  • Dichev, Ilia D.
  • Zheng, Xin

Abstract

The volatility of stock investor returns depends not only on the volatility of the stocks they hold but also on their time-varying capital exposure to these holdings. Using individual stocks, portfolios of stocks, and indexes across U.S. and international stock markets, we provide comprehensive evidence that the volatility of investor returns is consistently higher than the corresponding volatility of stock returns across nearly all specifications. The relative magnitude of the volatility differential ranges from 10% to 75%, increasing with investment horizon. This discrepancy is driven primarily by investors’ propensity to "flee volatility," withdrawing equity capital following periods of high volatility.

Suggested Citation

  • Dichev, Ilia D. & Zheng, Xin, 2024. "The volatility of stock investor returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:70:y:2024:i:c:s1386418124000454
    DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2024.100927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386418124000454
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.finmar.2024.100927?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Y. Campbell & Martin Lettau & Burton G. Malkiel & Yexiao Xu, 2001. "Have Individual Stocks Become More Volatile? An Empirical Exploration of Idiosyncratic Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 1-43, February.
    2. Stivers, Christopher T., 2003. "Firm-level return dispersion and the future volatility of aggregate stock market returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 389-411, May.
    3. Friesen, Geoffrey C. & Sapp, Travis R.A., 2007. "Mutual fund flows and investor returns: An empirical examination of fund investor timing ability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2796-2816, September.
    4. Maximilian Koestner & Benjamin Loos & Steffen Meyer & Andreas Hackethal, 2017. "Do individual investors learn from their mistakes?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 669-703, July.
    5. Jennifer Huang & Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2011. "Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2575-2616.
    6. Xavier Gabaix & Ralph S. J. Koijen, 2021. "In Search of the Origins of Financial Fluctuations: The Inelastic Markets Hypothesis," NBER Working Papers 28967, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2005. "On the Industry Concentration of Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1983-2011, August.
    8. Dichev, Ilia D. & Yu, Gwen, 2011. "Higher risk, lower returns: What hedge fund investors really earn," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 248-263, May.
    9. John Y. Campbell & Martin Lettau & Burton Malkiel & Yexiao Xu, 2023. "Idiosyncratic Equity Risk Two Decades Later," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 12(1-4), pages 203-223, August.
    10. Shlomo Benartzi & Richard H. Thaler, 1995. "Myopic Loss Aversion and the Equity Premium Puzzle," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(1), pages 73-92.
    11. Ilia D. Dichev, 2007. "What Are Stock Investors’ Actual Historical Returns? Evidence from Dollar-Weighted Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 386-401, March.
    12. Constantinides, George M, 1990. "Habit Formation: A Resolution of the Equity Premium Puzzle," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(3), pages 519-543, June.
    13. Dvorak Tomas, 2012. "Timing of Retirement Plan Contributions and Investment Returns: The Case of Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, May.
    14. Shumway, Tyler, 1997. "The Delisting Bias in CRSP Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 327-340, March.
    15. Connolly, Robert & Stivers, Chris, 2006. "Information content and other characteristics of the daily cross-sectional dispersion in stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 79-112, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rakowski, David & Yamani, Ehab, 2021. "Endogeneity in the mutual fund flow–performance relationship: An instrumental variables solution," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 247-271.
    2. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.
    3. Docherty, Paul & Hurst, Gareth, 2018. "Return dispersion and conditional momentum returns: International evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 263-278.
    4. Hamed Yousefi & Mohammad Najand & Licheng Sun, 2024. "The flow‐performance puzzle: Insights from passive and active ETFs," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(4), pages 3623-3656, December.
    5. Bessembinder, Hendrik & Cooper, Michael J. & Zhang, Feng, 2023. "Mutual fund performance at long horizons," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 132-158.
    6. Yamani, Ehab, 2023. "The informational role of fund flow in the profitable predictability of mutual funds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    7. Spencer J. Couts, 2024. "How do Non-Core Allocations Affect the Risk and Returns of Private Real Estate Funds?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 68(4), pages 715-748, May.
    8. Sun, Lingxia & Lee, Dong Wook, 2019. "Dollar-weighted return on aggregate corporate sector: How is it distributed across countries?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. Mikhail Samonov & Nonna Sorokina, 2024. "A century of asset allocation crash risk," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 383-406, July.
    10. Fei, Tianlun & Liu, Xiaoquan & Wen, Conghua, 2019. "Cross-sectional return dispersion and volatility prediction," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    11. Roelof Salomons, 2008. "A Theoretical And Practical Perspective On The Equity Risk Premium," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 299-329, April.
    12. Lee, Jaeram & Jeon, Hyunglae & Kang, Jangkoo & Lee, Changjun, 2020. "Do actively managed mutual funds exploit stock market mispricing?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Dvorak Tomas, 2012. "Timing of Retirement Plan Contributions and Investment Returns: The Case of Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, May.
    14. Bradley Jones, 2016. "Institutionalizing Countercyclical Investment: A Framework for Long-term Asset Owners," IMF Working Papers 2016/038, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Muñoz, Fernando & Vicente, Ruth, 2018. "Hindsight effect: What are the actual cash flow timing skills of mutual fund investors?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 181-193.
    16. Cheng, Mengyao, 2022. "Legislative gridlock and stock return dispersion around roll-call votes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    17. Geoffrey C. Friesen & Noel Pavel Jeutang & Emre Unlu, 2022. "The Effect of Unsuccessful Past Repurchases on Future Repurchasing Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 716-739, January.
    18. Jing Xie, 2024. "Stock-Picking by Mutual Funds: Evidence from Trading in Family-Controlled Firms," Working Papers 202411, University of Macau, Faculty of Business Administration.
    19. Rieger, Marc Oliver & Wang, Mei, 2012. "Can ambiguity aversion solve the equity premium puzzle? Survey evidence from international data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 63-72.
    20. Solomon, David H. & Soltes, Eugene & Sosyura, Denis, 2014. "Winners in the spotlight: Media coverage of fund holdings as a driver of flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 53-72.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stock returns; Volatility; Investor returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:70:y:2024:i:c:s1386418124000454. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/finmar .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.