IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v20y2019i7d10.1057_s41260-019-00136-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Naïve diversification in thematic investing: heuristics for the core satellite investor

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Methling

    (RWTH Aachen University)

  • Rüdiger Nitzsch

    (RWTH Aachen University)

Abstract

In recent years, thematic exchange-traded funds (ETF) have given core satellite strategies a new impetus. Thematic investing attempts to participate in certain trends, or to serve any conceivable subjective interest such as ethics and sustainability by supplementing the corresponding ETFs to conventional ones. Hence, the question arises how to weight the thematic satellite in relation to the diversified core portfolio. Complex research and factor models are hardly suitable for private investors, and the short history of thematic products would not provide reliable information anyway. Therefore, this study develops naïve diversification for thematic core satellite investors and provides three heuristics. The first strategies focus on portfolio and stock amounts; the later considers minimum concentration as an allocation rule based on the Herfindahl index. The heuristics prove to be useful and competitive to provide diversification regarding volatility of portfolio returns compared to a minimum variance optimization in out-of-sample tests. Hence, this study offers some pragmatic and truly practical aid for thematic investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Methling & Rüdiger Nitzsch, 2019. "Naïve diversification in thematic investing: heuristics for the core satellite investor," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(7), pages 568-580, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:20:y:2019:i:7:d:10.1057_s41260-019-00136-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41260-019-00136-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41260-019-00136-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41260-019-00136-2?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. Terrance Odean., 1996. "Volume, Volatility, Price and Profit When All Trader Are Above Average," Research Program in Finance Working Papers RPF-266, University of California at Berkeley.
    2. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    3. Arno Riedl & Paul Smeets, 2017. "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2505-2550, December.
    4. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Francisco J. Nogales & Raman Uppal, 2009. "A Generalized Approach to Portfolio Optimization: Improving Performance by Constraining Portfolio Norms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(5), pages 798-812, May.
    5. Lewis, Alan, 2001. "A focus group study of the motivation to invest: 'ethical/green' and 'ordinary' investors compared," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 331-341.
    6. Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi, 2001. "Naive Diversification Strategies in Defined Contribution Saving Plans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 79-98, March.
    7. Florian Methling & Rüdiger Nitzsch, 2019. "Thematic portfolio optimization: challenging the core satellite approach," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 33(2), pages 133-154, June.
    8. Panos Xidonas & George Mavrotas & Theodore Krintas & John Psarras & Constantin Zopounidis, 2012. "Multicriteria Portfolio Management," Springer Optimization and Its Applications, in: Multicriteria Portfolio Management, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 5-21, Springer.
    9. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 2000. "Behavioral Portfolio Theory," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 127-151, June.
    10. Kirby, Chris & Ostdiek, Barbara, 2012. "It’s All in the Timing: Simple Active Portfolio Strategies that Outperform Naïve Diversification," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 437-467, April.
    11. Webley, Paul & Lewis, Alan & Mackenzie, Craig, 2001. "Commitment among ethical investors: An experimental approach," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 27-42, February.
    12. John L. Evans & Stephen H. Archer, 1968. "Diversification And The Reduction Of Dispersion: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(5), pages 761-767, December.
    13. Céline Louche & Daniel Arenas & Katinka Cranenburgh, 2012. "From Preaching to Investing: Attitudes of Religious Organisations Towards Responsible Investment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 301-320, October.
    14. Statman, Meir, 1987. "How Many Stocks Make a Diversified Portfolio?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 353-363, September.
    15. Panos Xidonas & George Mavrotas & Theodore Krintas & John Psarras & Constantin Zopounidis, 2012. "Multicriteria Portfolio Management," Springer Optimization and Its Applications, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4614-3670-6, June.
    16. Ralph Steuer & Yue Qi & Markus Hirschberger, 2007. "Suitable-portfolio investors, nondominated frontier sensitivity, and the effect of multiple objectives on standard portfolio selection," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 297-317, July.
    17. Harry Markowitz, 1956. "The optimization of a quadratic function subject to linear constraints," Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1‐2), pages 111-133, March.
    18. Tang, Gordon Y. N., 2004. "How efficient is naive portfolio diversification? an educational note," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 155-160, April.
    19. Markus Hirschberger & Ralph E. Steuer & Sebastian Utz & Maximilian Wimmer & Yue Qi, 2013. "Computing the Nondominated Surface in Tri-Criterion Portfolio Selection," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 169-183, February.
    20. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:1887-1934 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Immo Stadtmüller & Benjamin R. Auer & Frank Schuhmacher, 2024. "Core-satellite investing with commodity futures momentum," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(3), pages 261-287, May.
    2. Anja Vinzelberg & Benjamin R. Auer, 2022. "Unprofitability of food market investments," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2887-2910, October.

    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. Qi, Yue & Liao, Kezhi & Liu, Tongyang & Zhang, Yu, 2022. "Originating multiple-objective portfolio selection by counter-COVID measures and analytically instigating robust optimization by mean-parameterized nondominated paths," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 9(C).
    2. Florian Methling & Rüdiger Nitzsch, 2020. "Tailor-made thematic portfolios: a core satellite optimization," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 76(2), pages 317-331, February.
    3. Florian Methling & Rüdiger Nitzsch, 2019. "Thematic portfolio optimization: challenging the core satellite approach," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 33(2), pages 133-154, June.
    4. Oehler, Andreas & Wanger, Hans Philipp, 2020. "Household portfolio optimization with XTFs? An empirical study using the SHS-base," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    5. Johannes Bock, 2018. "An updated review of (sub-)optimal diversification models," Papers 1811.08255, arXiv.org.
    6. Hwang, Inchang & Xu, Simon & In, Francis, 2018. "Naive versus optimal diversification: Tail risk and performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 372-388.
    7. Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Gottschalk, Jonas F. A., 2018. "Is socially responsible investing (SRI) in stocks a competitive capital investment? A comparative analysis based on the performance of sustainable stocks," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 349, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    8. Rui Pedro Brito & Hélder Sebastião & Pedro Godinho, 2015. "Portfolio Management With Higher Moments: The Cardinality Impact," GEMF Working Papers 2015-15, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    9. Gasser, Stephan M. & Rammerstorfer, Margarethe & Weinmayer, Karl, 2017. "Markowitz revisited: Social portfolio engineering," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 1181-1190.
    10. Carolina Fugazza & Massimo Guidolin & Giovanna Nicodano, 2015. "Equally Weighted vs. Long†Run Optimal Portfolios," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 21(4), pages 742-789, September.
    11. Yue Qi, 2017. "On the criterion vectors of lines of portfolio selection with multiple quadratic and multiple linear objectives," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 25(1), pages 145-158, March.
    12. Yue Qi & Ralph E. Steuer & Maximilian Wimmer, 2017. "An analytical derivation of the efficient surface in portfolio selection with three criteria," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 251(1), pages 161-177, April.
    13. Syed Zakir Abbas ZAIDI*, 2017. "Determinants Of Stocks For Optimal Portfolio," Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, Applied Economics Research Centre, vol. 27(1), pages 1-27.
    14. A. Burak Paç & Mustafa Ç. Pınar, 2018. "On robust portfolio and naïve diversification: mixing ambiguous and unambiguous assets," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 266(1), pages 223-253, July.
    15. K. Liagkouras & K. Metaxiotis, 2018. "A new efficiently encoded multiobjective algorithm for the solution of the cardinality constrained portfolio optimization problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 267(1), pages 281-319, August.
    16. Oikonomou, Ioannis & Platanakis, Emmanouil & Sutcliffe, Charles, 2018. "Socially responsible investment portfolios: Does the optimization process matter?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 379-401.
    17. Tasca, Paolo & Mavrodiev, Pavlin & Schweitzer, Frank, 2014. "Quantifying the impact of leveraging and diversification on systemic risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 43-52.
    18. Azra Zaimovic & Adna Omanovic & Almira Arnaut-Berilo, 2021. "How Many Stocks Are Sufficient for Equity Portfolio Diversification? A Review of the Literature," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-30, November.
    19. Boudt, Kris & Raza, Muhammad Wajid & Wauters, Marjan, 2019. "Evaluating the Shariah-compliance of equity portfolios: The weighting method matters," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 406-417.
    20. Michael Curran & Patrick O'Sullivan & Ryan Zalla, 2020. "Can Volatility Solve the Naive Portfolio Puzzle?," Papers 2005.03204, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2022.

    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:pal:assmgt:v:20:y:2019:i:7:d:10.1057_s41260-019-00136-2. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.