IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0922.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Investing for the Short and the Long Term

Author

Listed:
  • Stanley Fischer

Abstract

If asset returns have different dynamics, then their short and long run risk characteristics differ. For instance, if returns on one asset follow a random walk, it is very risky to hold for the long term even if it is quite safe for the short term. This paper examines the effects of different returns dynamics of assets on optimal portfolio behavior, for Portfolios held for differing lengths of times. It then examines the evidence on the dynamics of stock and bill returns in the United States. The evidence is that bill returns are more highly serially correlated than stock returns. Thus their riskiness relative to that of stocks rises the longer they are held. optimal portfolios are simulated, and it is shown that optimal port- folio proportions are not very sensitive to the length of the holding period of the portfolio.

Suggested Citation

  • Stanley Fischer, 1982. "Investing for the Short and the Long Term," NBER Working Papers 0922, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0922
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0922.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Merton, Robert C. & Samuelson, Paul A., 1974. "Fallacy of the log-normal approximation to optimal portfolio decision-making over many periods," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 67-94, May.
    2. Ross, Stephen A., 1974. "Portfolio turnpike theorems for constant policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 171-198, July.
    3. Garbade, Kenneth & Wachtel, Paul, 1978. "Time variation in the relationship between inflation and interest rates," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 755-765, November.
    4. Goldman, M Barry, 1979. "Anti-Diversification or Optimal Programmes for Infrequently Revised Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 34(2), pages 505-516, May.
    5. Hakansson, Nils H, 1970. "Optimal Investment and Consumption Strategies Under Risk for a Class of Utility Functions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(5), pages 587-607, September.
    6. Sims, Christopher A, 1980. "Macroeconomics and Reality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-48, January.
    7. Nelson, Charles R & Schwert, G William, 1977. "Short-Term Interest Rates as Predictors of Inflation: On Testing the Hypothesis That the Real Rate of Interest is Constant," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 478-486, June.
    8. MOSSIN, Jan, 1968. "Optimal multiperiod portfolio policies," LIDAM Reprints CORE 19, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    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. Stanley Fischer, 1983. "Investing for the Short and the Long Term," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 153-176, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Stanley Fischer & George Pennacchi, 1985. "Serial Correlation of Asset Returns and Optimal Portfolios for the Long and Short Term," NBER Working Papers 1625, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Levy, Haim & Levy, Moshe, 2021. "The cost of diversification over time, and a simple way to improve target-date funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    4. Kate Phylaktis & David Blake, 1993. "The fisher hypothesis: Evidence from three high inflation economies," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 129(3), pages 591-599, September.
    5. KIM, Jae-Young & PARK, Woong Yong, 2018. "Some Empirical Evidence on Models of the Fisher Relation: Post-Data Comparison," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-68, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    6. Garcia, Rene & Perron, Pierre, 1996. "An Analysis of the Real Interest Rate under Regime Shifts," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(1), pages 111-125, February.
    7. Ben Hambly & Renyuan Xu & Huining Yang, 2021. "Recent Advances in Reinforcement Learning in Finance," Papers 2112.04553, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    8. Karen K. Lewis & Martin D. Evans, 1992. "Do Expected Shifts in Inflation Policy Affect Real Rates?," NBER Working Papers 4134, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Litterman, Robert B & Weiss, Laurence M, 1985. "Money, Real Interest Rates, and Output: A Reinterpretation of Postwar U.S. Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(1), pages 129-156, January.
    10. Emanuela Sciubba, 2006. "The evolution of portfolio rules and the capital asset pricing model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(1), pages 123-150, September.
    11. Paolo Guasoni & Constantinos Kardaras & Scott Robertson & Hao Xing, 2014. "Abstract, classic, and explicit turnpikes," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 75-114, January.
    12. Frederic S. Mishkin, 1988. "Understanding Real Interest Rates," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(5), pages 1064-1072.
    13. Post, Thomas & Gründl, Helmut & Schmit, Joan & Zimmer, Anja, 2008. "The impact of individual investment behavior for retirement welfare: Evidence from the United States and Germany," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2008-037, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    14. Athar Iqbal & Akhtiar Ali & Peter Xavier D’Abreo, 2017. "Fama And French Three Factor Model Application In The Pakistan Stock Exchange (Pse)," IBT Journal of Business Studies (JBS), Ilma University, Faculty of Management Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11.
    15. Fujihara, Roger A. & Mougoue, Mbodja, 1996. "International linkages between short-term real interest rates," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 451-473.
    16. Guasoni, Paolo & Muhle-Karbe, Johannes & Xing, Hao, 2017. "Robust portfolios and weak incentives in long-run investments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60577, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Fumio Hayashi, 1985. "The Effect of Liquidity Constraints on Consumption: A Cross-Sectional Analysis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(1), pages 183-206.
    18. Scott Robertson & Hao Xing, 2014. "Long Term Optimal Investment in Matrix Valued Factor Models," Papers 1408.7010, arXiv.org.
    19. Haim Levy & Moshe Levy, 2021. "Prospect theory, constant relative risk aversion, and the investment horizon," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-21, April.
    20. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1667 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Ziemba, William, 2016. "A response to Professor Paul A. Samuelson's objections to Kelly capital growth investing," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119002, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:0922. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.