IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v38y2013i2p401-427.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does portfolio emulation outperform its target funds?

Author

Listed:
  • Zhe Chen

    (Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia; Capital Markets CRC Limited, Sydney, Australia)

  • F Douglas Foster

    (School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Applied Statistics, The Australian National University, Australia)

  • David R Gallagher

    (Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia; Capital Markets CRC Limited, Sydney, Australia)

  • Adrian D Lee

    (UTS Business School, University of Technology, Australia)

Abstract

An emulation fund is designed to reduce trading activity, thereby lowering costs, for a multi-manager fund. It does this by delaying, and potentially combining, trading decisions from each employed fund manager to eliminate offsetting trades (e.g. one manager may buy a stock for her fund while another manager sells the same stock at approximately the same time for his fund). While lowering transaction costs is a key benefit of an emulation strategy, there has been little research that compares the reduction in transaction costs with the opportunity costs of delaying trade. Using reported equity trades for a large Australian pension fund, we simulate the consequences of an emulation strategy. We find that simulated emulation trades underperform those trades made by the employed (or target) fund over our sample period. That is, the opportunity cost of delayed trading significantly outweighs transaction cost reductions. Overall, we do not find strong evidence to support emulation from a cost–benefit perspective before management fees and taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhe Chen & F Douglas Foster & David R Gallagher & Adrian D Lee, 2013. "Does portfolio emulation outperform its target funds?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(2), pages 401-427, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:38:y:2013:i:2:p:401-427
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896212455933
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896212455933
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896212455933?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen J. Brown & William N. Goetzmann & Bing Liang, 2005. "Fees On Fees In Funds Of Funds," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: H Gifford Fong (ed.), The World Of Hedge Funds Characteristics and Analysis, chapter 7, pages 141-160, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Andrew Ang & Matthew Rhodes-Kropf & Rui Zhao, 2008. "Do Funds-of-Funds Deserve Their Fees-on-Fees?," NBER Working Papers 13944, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jerry T. Parwada, 2003. "Trends and determinants of Australian managed fund transaction costs," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 43(3), pages 345-363, November.
    4. Keim, Donald B & Madhaven, Ananth, 1996. "The Upstairs Market for Large-Block Transactions: Analysis and Measurement of Price Effects," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 1-36.
    5. Aitken, Michael & Frino, Alex, 1996. "Execution costs associated with institutional trades on the Australian Stock Exchange," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 45-58, May.
    6. Ian Domowitz & Jack Glen & Ananth Madhavan, 2001. "Liquidity, Volatility and Equity Trading Costs Across Countries and Over Time," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 221-255.
    7. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:869-898 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sharpe, W F, 1981. "Decentralized Investment Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 217-234, May.
    9. Cong Chen & Carole Comerton-Forde & David R. Gallagher & Terry S. Walter, 2010. "Investment manager skill in small-cap equities," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 35(1), pages 23-49, April.
    10. repec:bla:intfin:v:4:y:2001:i:2:p:221-55 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Michael A. Goldstein & Paul Irvine & Eugene Kandel & Zvi Wiener, 2009. "Brokerage Commissions and Institutional Trading Patterns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(12), pages 5175-5212, December.
    12. Chan, Louis K C & Lakonishok, Josef, 1995. "The Behavior of Stock Prices around Institutional Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1147-1174, September.
    13. Simone Brands & David R. Gallagher, 2005. "Portfolio selection, diversification and fund‐of‐funds: a note," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 45(2), pages 185-197, July.
    14. Elton, Edwin J. & Gruber, Martin J., 2004. "Optimum Centralized Portfolio Construction with Decentralized Portfolio Management," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(3), pages 481-494, September.
    15. Barr Rosenberg., 1977. "Institutional Investment with Multiple Portfolio Managers," Research Program in Finance Working Papers 65, University of California at Berkeley.
    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. Zhe Chen & F. Douglas Foster & David R. Gallagher & Adrian D. Lee & Steven Cahan, 2015. "A model of emulation funds," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(3), pages 717-748, September.
    2. Benson, Karen & Faff, Robert & Smith, Tom, 2015. "Injecting liquidity into liquidity research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PB), pages 533-540.

    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. Zhe Chen & F. Douglas Foster & David R. Gallagher & Adrian D. Lee & Steven Cahan, 2015. "A model of emulation funds," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(3), pages 717-748, September.
    2. Hu, Gang, 2009. "Measures of implicit trading costs and buy-sell asymmetry," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 418-437, August.
    3. Carole Comerton-Forde & David R. Gallagher & Jumana Nahhas & Terry S. Walter, 2010. "Transaction costs and institutional trading in small-cap equity funds," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 35(3), pages 313-327, December.
    4. Fan, Longzhen & Hu, Bill & Jiang, Christine, 2012. "Pricing and information content of block trades on the Shanghai Stock Exchange," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 378-397.
    5. Sun, Yuxin & Ibikunle, Gbenga, 2017. "Informed trading and the price impact of block trades: A high frequency trading analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 114-129.
    6. Aktas, Osman Ulas & Kryzanowski, Lawrence, 2014. "Market impacts of trades for stocks listed on the Borsa Istanbul," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 152-175.
    7. Alex Frino & Vito Mollica & Maria Grazia Romano & Zeyang Zhou, 2017. "Asymmetry in the Permanent Price Impact of Block Purchases and Sales: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(4), pages 359-373, April.
    8. Michael J. O'Neill & Geoffrey J. Warren, 2019. "Evaluating fund capacity: issues and methods," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(S1), pages 773-800, April.
    9. Murphy Jun Jie Lee, 2013. "The Microstructure of Trading Processes on the Singapore Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 2-2013, January-A.
    10. Qin Lei & Murli Rajan & Xuewu Wang, 2012. "An empirical analysis of corporate insiders' trading performance," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(3), pages 246-264, June.
    11. Alzahrani, Ahmed A. & Gregoriou, Andros & Hudson, Robert, 2013. "Price impact of block trades in the Saudi stock market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 322-341.
    12. Hazel Bateman & Susan Thorp, 2005. "Decentralised Portfolio Management: Analysis of Australian Accumulation Funds," Research Paper Series 161, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    13. Murphy Jun Jie Lee, 2013. "The Microstructure of Trading Processes on the Singapore Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 4, July-Dece.
    14. Martin Gold, 2010. "Fiduciary Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13813.
    15. Bikker, Jacob A. & Spierdijk, Laura & van der Sluis, Pieter Jelle, 2007. "Market impact costs of institutional equity trades," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 974-1000, October.
    16. Alex Frino & Vito Mollica & Maria Grazia Romano, 2013. "Transaction fees and trading strategies in financial markets," STUDI ECONOMICI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(111), pages 25-49.
    17. Nadège Ribau-Peltre & Pascal Damel & An Lethi, 2018. "A methodology to avoid over-diversification of funds of equity funds An implementation case study for equity funds of funds in bull markets," Post-Print hal-03027770, HAL.
    18. Yue Zhao & Difang Wan, 2018. "Institutional high frequency trading and price discovery: Evidence from an emerging commodity futures market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 243-270, February.
    19. Agarwal, Vikas & Kale, Jayant R., 2007. "On the relative performance of multi-strategy and funds of hedge funds," CFR Working Papers 07-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    20. Alexander, Gordon J. & Peterson, Mark A., 2007. "An analysis of trade-size clustering and its relation to stealth trading," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 435-471, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brokerage; fund-of-funds; market impact; multi-manager; offsetting trades; portfolio emulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    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:sae:ausman:v:38:y:2013:i:2:p:401-427. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.