IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ajf/louvlr/2021004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trading leveraged Exchange-Traded products is hazardous to your wealth

Author

Listed:
  • D’Hondt, Catherine

    (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/LFIN, Belgium)

  • McGowan, Richard
  • Roger, Patrick

Abstract

Using a large set of both trading and survey data, we sketch the profile of the typical retail investor who trades Leveraged Exchange-Traded Products (LETPs). Our findings show that the typical user of LETPs looks like an overconfident gambler willing to take a high risk, though some highly loss averse investors use inverse leveraged Exchange-Traded Products (ILETPs) for hedging purposes. Aggregating holdings in both stocks and Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs), users of LETPs get a lower performance than retail investors who invest in vanilla ETPs (VETPs). The reason is twofold: they trade too much and hurt their returns when investing in LETPs. Though trading LETPs could be interpreted as rational gambling, the skewness of the monthly portfolio returns of LETP users does not offset the risk-return sacrifice in the mean-variance space.

Suggested Citation

  • D’Hondt, Catherine & McGowan, Richard & Roger, Patrick, 2021. "Trading leveraged Exchange-Traded products is hazardous to your wealth," LIDAM Reprints LFIN 2021004, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    • Handle: RePEc:ajf:louvlr:2021004
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2021.02.012
    Note: In: The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2021, vol. 80, p. 287-302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Jonathan A. Parker, 2005. "Optimal Expectations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1092-1118, September.
    2. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Jonathan A. Parker & Christian Gollier, 2007. "Optimal Beliefs, Asset Prices, and the Preference for Skewed Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 159-165, May.
    3. Ludwig Ensthaler & Olga Nottmeyer & Georg Weizsäcker & Christian Zankiewicz, 2018. "Hidden Skewness: On the Difficulty of Multiplicative Compounding Under Random Shocks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1693-1706, April.
    4. Madhavan, Ananth N., 2016. "Exchange-Traded Funds and the New Dynamics of Investing," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190279394.
    5. Laurent E. Calvet & John Y. Campbell & Paolo Sodini, 2007. "Down or Out: Assessing the Welfare Costs of Household Investment Mistakes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 707-747, October.
    6. Mark S. Seasholes & Ning Zhu, 2010. "Individual Investors and Local Bias," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1987-2010, October.
    7. Todd Mitton & Keith Vorkink, 2007. "Equilibrium Underdiversification and the Preference for Skewness," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(4), pages 1255-1288.
    8. Rui Albuquerque, 2012. "Skewness in Stock Returns: Reconciling the Evidence on Firm Versus Aggregate Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(5), pages 1630-1673.
    9. Kumar, Alok, 2007. "Do the diversification choices of individual investors influence stock returns?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 362-390, November.
    10. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2000. "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 773-806, April.
    11. Catherine D'Hondt & Patrick Roger, 2017. "Investor sentiment and stock return predictability: The power of ignorance," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 38(2), pages 7-37.
    12. Alok Kumar, 2009. "Who Gambles in the Stock Market?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1889-1933, August.
    13. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 2000. "Behavioral Portfolio Theory," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 127-151, June.
    14. William N. Goetzmann & Alok Kumar, 2008. "Equity Portfolio Diversification," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(3), pages 433-463.
    15. Bellofatto, Anthony & D’Hondt, Catherine & De Winne, Rudy, 2018. "Subjective financial literacy and retail investors’ behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 168-181.
    16. Blume, Marshall E & Friend, Irwin, 1975. "The Asset Structure of Individual Portfolios and Some Implications for Utility Functions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 30(2), pages 585-603, May.
    17. Gollier, Christian, 2005. "Optimal Illusions and Decisions under Risk," IDEI Working Papers 340, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    18. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    19. Bali, Turan G. & Cakici, Nusret & Whitelaw, Robert F., 2011. "Maxing out: Stocks as lotteries and the cross-section of expected returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 427-446, February.
    20. Lease, Ronald C & Lewellen, Wilbur G & Schlarbaum, Gary G, 1974. "The Individual Investor: Attributes and Attitudes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 413-433, May.
    21. Marie-Hélène Broihanne & Maxime Merli & Patrick Roger, 2016. "Diversification, gambling and market forces," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 129-157, July.
    22. Cardak, Buly A. & Martin, Vance L. & McAllister, Richard, 2019. "The effects of the Global Financial Crisis on the stock holding decisions of Australian households," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    23. Nicholas Barberis & Ming Huang, 2008. "Stocks as Lotteries: The Implications of Probability Weighting for Security Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 2066-2100, December.
    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. Denis Davydov & Jarkko Peltomäki, 2023. "Investor attention and the use of leverage," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 287-313, May.
    2. D’Hondt, Catherine & Elhichou Elmaya, Younes & Petitjean, Mikael, 2021. "Blaming or praising passive ETFs?," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2021008, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    3. Catherine D’hondt & Maxime Merli & Tristan Roger, 2021. "What drives retail portfolio exposure to ESG factors?," Post-Print hal-03373287, HAL.
    4. D’Hondt, Catherine & Merli, Maxime & Roger, Tristan, 2022. "What drives retail portfolio exposure to ESG factors?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).

    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. Marie-Hélène Broihanne & Maxime Merli & Patrick Roger, 2016. "Diversification, gambling and market forces," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 129-157, July.
    2. Patrick Roger & Marie-Hélène Broihanne & Maxime Merli, 2012. "In search of positive skewness: the case of individual investors," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2012-04, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    3. Hsin, Chin-Wen & Peng, Shu-Cing, 2023. "Investor propensity to speculate and price delay in emerging markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Stephen G Dimmock & Roy Kouwenberg & Olivia S Mitchell & Kim Peijnenburg, 2021. "Household Portfolio Underdiversification and Probability Weighting: Evidence from the Field," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(9), pages 4524-4563.
    5. Andreas Oehler & Julian Schneider, 2022. "Gambling with lottery stocks?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 477-503, October.
    6. D’Hondt, Catherine & De Winne, Rudy & Merli, Maxime, 2021. "Do retail investors bite off more than they can chew? A close look at their return objectives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 879-902.
    7. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, June.
    8. Jondeau, Eric & Zhang, Qunzi & Zhu, Xiaoneng, 2019. "Average skewness matters," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 29-47.
    9. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    10. Barber, Brad M. & Odean, Terrance, 2013. "The Behavior of Individual Investors," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1533-1570, Elsevier.
    11. Abrahamson, Martin, 2016. "“Rookies to the stock market: A portrait of new shareholders”," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 565-576.
    12. Zhao, Xiaojuan & Wang, Ye & Liu, Weiyi, 2024. "Someone like you: Lottery-like preference and the cross-section of expected returns in the cryptocurrency market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Elyès Jouini & Paul Karehnke & Clotilde Napp, 2014. "On Portfolio Choice with Savoring and Disappointment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(3), pages 796-804, March.
    14. Huang, Helen Hui & Sun, Jianchun & Zhang, Shunming, 2024. "Asset pricing for the lottery-like security under probability weighting: Based on generalized Wang transform," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. Marinela Adriana Finta & José Renato Haas Ornelas, 2018. "Commodity Return Predictability: evidence from implied variance, skewness and their risk premia and their risk premia," Working Papers Series 479, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    16. Bradrania, Reza & Gao, Ya, 2024. "Lottery demand, weather and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    17. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Kong, Dongmin & Wu, Ji, 2017. "Do extreme returns matter in emerging markets? Evidence from the Chinese stock market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 189-197.
    18. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    19. Ji Cao & Marc Oliver Rieger & Lei Zhao, 2019. "Safety First, Loss Probability, and the Cross Section of Expected Stock Returns," Working Paper Series 2019-02, University of Trier, Research Group Quantitative Finance and Risk Analysis.
    20. Annaert, Jan & De Ceuster, Marc & Verstegen, Kurt, 2013. "Are extreme returns priced in the stock market? European evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3401-3411.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Leverage ; ETPs ; Retail investors ; Gambling ; Skewness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General

    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:ajf:louvlr:2021004. 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: Séverine De Visscher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lfuclbe.html .

    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.