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Mark Spitznagel On The Value Of Tail-Hedged Equities
Submitted by Mark Spitznagel, Brandon Yarckin, and Chitpuneet Mann via Pensions & Investments,
The introduction of asymmetric beta to the CAPM framework can allow an investor to construct a portfolio with expectations well above the security market line.
Incorporating asymmetric beta provides evidence of a mispricing in certain payoff profiles, namely tail hedged equities, that can be analyzed by using variants of the CAPM type of framework. CAPM based asset allocations are misspecified and ill-equipped to handle asymmetric returns.
The capital asset pricing model is a fundamental building block with which investors make allocation decisions over time. Investment decisions are made based on risk-return constructs, and in this framework, CAPM, for the most part, has stood the test of time. Due to its simplicity, it is widely used when an equity investor wants to roughly estimate the expected returns of one's portfolio.
We want to appraise the value of tail hedging within a CAPM framework, and thereby show the efficacy of tail hedging and the misspecificity of the model itself.
By using Harry Markowitz's efficient frontier, one can roughly compare different asset classes based on their consensus expected returns and observed risk (mostly computed using standard deviation of asset returns). However, this measure of risk is fairly naive since it has been well documented that most, if not all, asset classes have non-normal fat-tailed and often asymmetric return distributions. Asymmetric properties are not well accounted for in a mean-variance framework as it underestimates tail risk in negatively skewed portfolios. Stress tests should thus be used, as they are critical risk estimation tools that transparently demonstrate vulnerabilities to large deviations that can impact long-term expected returns. (We recognize successful empirical research stating that multifactor models can explain and predict investment returns, but they have similar limitations.)
Due to the principal-agent problem in the asset management industry, most money managers rationally have a propensity to use a negatively skewed payoff distribution. This kind of behavior, in aggregate, is also evidenced in the historical data, which shows significant losses for professional investors during the largest market downturns. Most investors and asset allocators, in addition to these negatively skewed positions, further view the returns of hedging strategies in a vacuum, rather than as a holistic part of their broader portfolio. Thus, they are likely to consider portfolio hedging programs to be a drag on their performance numbers and further undervalue them. We believe these factors, among others, contribute to a market segmentation that creates an undervaluation in tail-risk hedges.
Assuming there are such opportunities in hedging tail risk, let's evaluate how one can depict an asset class' risk-return profile and see if using a fair proxy tail-risk hedging program could help investors better maneuver these not-so-uncommon market crashes. We use Mr. Markowitz's efficient frontier type of framework to plot a “risk measure” on the x-axis (which is the average semi-variance for three-year rolling monthly returns) and the corresponding asset's annualized returns on the y-axis.
From Figure 1, we can ascertain that from a risk-reward standpoint, an investment in the S&P 500 index plus short-term Treasuries could be considered a benchmark for validating a tail hedge argument. Thus, we choose a vanilla 60/40 portfolio — 60% invested in the S&P 500 and 40% in short-term Treasuries, rebalanced monthly. On the other hand, our tail-hedged portfolio consists of S&P 500 and out-of-the-money put options (specifically one delta which has a strike roughly 30% to 35% below spot) on the S&P 500. At the beginning of every calendar month, using actual option prices, the number of third-month options (with a maturity from 11 to 12 weeks, and also carrying over the payoff from unexpired options) is determined such that the tail-hedged portfolio breaks even for a down 20% move in the S&P 500 over a month. From practice, for scaling the payoff, we can safely assume the S&P 500 options' implied volatility, or IVol, surface would look similar to the one observed after the lows of the October 2002 crash.
Marked-to-market fluctuations in the options position of the tail-hedged portfolio (i.e. giving back small unrealized gains) can cause its risks to be overstated by semi-variance. We can, however, overcome this limitation by using model-free stress tests.
Below we have defined a conservative stress test with monthly price and IVol shifts such that the IVol is unchanged for down 5% and 10% moves (which is still included in this test as a shoulder risk, although we consider to be a remote possibility), and for down 20%, we report the average results (in Figure 2) when we assume that the IVol surface would look similar to the one observed after five different crashes (August 1998, October 2002, October 2008, May 2010 and August 2011) in the past two decades. The benchmark portfolio would have the same risk throughout the time horizon as the price shift is defined in terms of moves in the S&P 500; however, the tail-hedged portfolio will reflect varying risk profiles depending on how often the hedge is rebalanced.
As we have defined and constructed the hedge portion of the tail-hedged portfolio in a very simplistic manner with minimal ongoing trading/rebalancing, we could evaluate the mean portfolio returns of daily stress tests to get a fair idea of what the risk characteristics look like throughout the investment horizon. Figure 2 demonstrates that the tail-hedged portfolio is increasingly less risky than the 60/40 benchmark for left fat tail moves over most of the investment horizon.
Being conservative, let's assume that the tail-hedged portfolio has similar risk properties as the benchmark portfolio. Using Figure 3, we can see that not only does the tail-hedged portfolio perform better than our benchmark (since the inclusion of options in the portfolio clips the fat left tail and allows us to take more equity risk and invest in the S&P 500), it also has a roughly 7% annualized outperformance over the S&P 500 itself.
Moreover, if we overlay our hedged portfolio performance on the previously demonstrated risk-reward plot, we would get the shaded annualized return distribution region (for robustness, we tweaked the parameters of tail-hedged portfolio construction methodology and plotted the returns of the different variations), and the risk is approximated as being similar to the benchmark. Further, it is likely a similar profile is replicable on other asset classes by incorporating tail hedges where available, but we focus on the S&P because it has the longest history of options data.
Asymmetric profiles, as evidenced by the tail-hedged portfolio, significantly raise both the returns and the risk-adjusted returns of equity portfolios, which should be deterministic in allowing one to capture much greater equity risk premium over time. Asset allocation decisions should be refined when analyzing asymmetric returns to include additional stress tests that identify potential portfolio tail risks and appraise their mitigation.
Here we have shown that CAPM type of frameworks are misspecified and leave out a whole class of securities that have highly non-linear payoffs, and because of this exclusion, they are ignored by capital allocators, and thus provide returns well above the security market line.
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All the Fig 1 chart tells me is that I need to shift my shortstop & 2nd baseman more up the middle.
"Come on in! The water's fine!"
Assuming you are correct about the middle. Mark , can you make fog analysis more opaque...analysis paralysis to the moon.
sup with the narrow range in todays trading?
I warned you last night that we would trade sideways today, and probably into mid-Monday as well.
Pay attention!
cheers, cg
Lol..... cute. Hedges in a centrally planned world where a central banker can completely fuck you while you sleep. BTFD and hedge with PMs.
That's kind of the point, Doc. Some institutions have no choice. If you run a pension plan, an insurance pool, a small bank's assets, you have to be in the market . The question is how to limit the risk. They can't hide out in PMs, inventory, and boating accidents.
As all should realize by now, PMs are the most manipulated part ot the "FREE" ,(LOL), markets. The few decide when they go up or down. They have manipulated miners to a larger degree. As Jamie Dimon has said, we get the best price for our clients when they sell. Ramp up, grinding sell down. Rinse and repeat. It is actually pitiful. The FED has participated, manipulated, controlled all asset classes with help from their go to bankers. Think GS, (primary), JPM, Wells, BAC, PNC, and a couple others.
If tulip bulbs can hit fifty grand per bulb why not corn per kernal?
Its not like it isn't a fuel let alone a feed.
This article strikes as a big pile of doo-doo. The price difference betwwen sorghum and corn does not however.
I know they have to be invested and hedged. My point is no amount of hedging can save you from a SNB type move.
So cash is indeed King and I need no Bank whatsoever nor for any reason.
I was looking at Horizon's Universa Black Swan ETF; it's an actively managed fund that hedges against the downturns with put options. Trades on the TSX. Is there anything similar available on the american markets? God I need help with investing...
Good question. Mercury had hedges on based on ETF tracking decay. He is the only one I know of on here trading that stuff at that level. If you find something, please let us know.
Note: ETFs in general have high costs and lousy tracking histories. You might want to read up on put spreads. It's a real confidence builder.
So I found an ETF under the symbol HZUVF (https://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/goto/evaluate/snapshot.jhtml?sy...). I called Horizons and asked about it and they said it's an "over-the-counter" alternative to their offering (http://www.horizonsetfs.com/pub/en/etfs/?etf=HUS.U&tab=overview). I have no idea what "over-the-counter" means in this context, but the volume looks very low and it seems as though Fidelity won't even allow me to make a buy order.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of Taleb's philosophical work (black swan, antifragile, fooled by randomness), but I have yet to understand the mathematical complexities with relation to options trading. Have you read his Dynamic Headging book kaiserhoff?
Fooled by randomness is a master piece. Have not read Dynamic Hedging, oddly enough. His funds lost money, but I love Taleb.
Yes, avoid over the counter, the bid/ask differential will kill you. I would start with Michael Sincere's Understanding Options, it's dirt cheap on Amazon, and consider your scale. If you are trying to hedge a personal portfolio, you should be able to do that on your own, but don't be in a hurry. You're heading in the right direction.
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Thanks for the advice. I will give your recommended book a read.
Something similiar to a closed end fund is The Gateway open end fund GTEYX. Not a great record.
This same strategy is inside many "structured notes" the banks sell with very nice profit margins.
Nice piece, but too specialized for this crowd.
I think we are much like Japan in the eighties. Any stock included in the S&P 500 will be pulled along with the average, regardless of what a dog it is. Any stock not in the average, had better be hedged.
Edit: The point here is meeting or beating benchmarks, like the 500..., not investment advice.
That's how these managers keep their jobs. That is the context of my comments. Making any money at the fund level is a growing problem and an impending disaster.
CU is getting close to approaching the 2.4 Maginot Line.
So I assume one has to dump cash into Universa, or is there another way to play this strategy without just buying long dated OOM puts on SPY?
This is new information?
The question is whether in a lower return equity environment annualized cost of 2-3% for out of the money puts rolled monthly is worth it?
I'm not reading the article now, as I'm already half way through a bottle of riojia, but I would be very interested to hear if any of you have read Mark's book, The Dao if Capital, and what you thought of it,
It's well worth reading, but it's a very strange book, he labours over his explanations of the simplest concepts, and then brushes over things that are extremely intricate and complex,
But, in fairness, if you're into the Austrian school, some of the chapters are exceedingly interesting and enlightening,
Haven't yet, but I plan to. I have a good knowledge of macroeconomics and austrian capital theory, but no knowledge of trading. Is it something a novice in trading/investing can understand? At the very least, entertaining?
Yep, approx 80% of it is not directly related to trading, only the last two chapters are, most of it is.....well, it's kinda hard to describe, ecological systems, philosophy, and the history of Austrian Econ, with some very interesting insights into the leading figures of it, which is extremely interesting,
I read it because Ron Paul wrote the foreward, therefore I knew it was not BS, and I'm glad I did, took a lot from it,
The book also has the highest of praise for "Economics in one Lesson", which I think is one of the finest books ever written, of any genre,
Spitznagel does not belong to the Austrian school. The only one I am aware of who belongs, so far, is Huerta de Soto. Since the passing of Rothbard, the US Austrian gang has not generated anything worth reading/listenting to.
I don't know much about Spitznagel the man, so you may be right on that, although the book would strongly suggest otherwise,
However, you are dead wrong about US Austrian's,
Exhibit A: Dr Ron Paul
Exhibit B: Prof Walter Block
Salerno, Hoppe, Hülsmann, Thornton, Woods, Murphy, Herbener, Bagus, Block, Kirzner, Garrison to name a few with interesting output...
I agree though that de Soto rocks.
It is sad to see that even Spitznagel doesn't get it. By calling these events tail risks, it shows he doesn't understand that under fractional reserve banking, a run for liquidity is actually the natural outcome, while stability is the tail risk. By using the same paradigm mainstream economists use, he is simply staying within the box (i.e. he ends his exposition acknowledging there is indeed something called the security market line, which Von Mises would have simply dismissed as a mental tool designed to prove something that does not exist).
Sounds complicated. I just BTFD. Then I shift to BTFATH.
Rinse and repeat until the fookin music stops.
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