Quant BuffetRelax, Not Over Thinking

Betting-Against-Beta Strategy

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Academic paper

Strategy in a nutshell

The investment universe consists of all stocks from the CRSP database. The beta for each stock is calculated with respect to the MSCI US Equity Index using a 1-year rolling window. Stocks are then ranked in ascending order on the basis of their estimated beta. The ranked stocks are assigned to one of two portfolios: low beta and high beta. Securities are weighted by the ranked betas, and portfolios are rebalanced every calendar month. Both portfolios are rescaled to have a beta of one at portfolio formation. The “Betting-Against-Beta” is the zero-cost zero-beta portfolio that is long on the low-beta portfolio and short on the high-beta portfolio. There are a lot of simple modifications (like going long on the bottom beta decile and short on the top beta decile), which could probably improve the strategy’s performance.

Economic rationale

The reason for the anomaly functionality was already stated in the short description – a lot of the investors are prohibited from using leverage, and their only way to achieve higher returns is to buy more risky stocks, which is the main cause for their overvaluation. Investors not facing these constraints could earn above-average returns by exploiting this phenomenon.

Backtest performance

Annualised return8.86%
Volatility11.5%
Beta0.624
Sharpe ratio0.657
Sortino ratio0.672
Maximum drawdown62.1%
Win rate57%

Full Python code

from scipy import stats
from AlgoLib import *
import numpy as np
from pandas.core.frame import DataFrame
from typing import List, Dict
class BettingAgainstBetaFactorinStocks(XXX):
def Initialize(self):
self.SetStartDate(2000, 1, 1)
self.SetCash(100000)
# daily price data
self.data:Dict[Symbol, RollingWindow] = {}
self.period:int = 12 * 21
self.symbol:Symbol = self.AddEquity('SPY', Resolution.Daily).Symbol
self.data[self.symbol] = RollingWindow[float](self.period)

self.long:List[Symbol] = []
self.short:List[Symbol] = []
self.long_lvg:float = 1.   # leverage for long portfolio calculated from average beta
self.short_lvg:float = 1.  # leverage for short portfolio calculated from average beta
self.leverage_cap:float = 2.

self.coarse_count:int = 1000
self.quantile:int = 10
self.min_share_price:float = 5.

self.selection_flag:bool = False
self.UniverseSettings.Resolution = Resolution.Daily
self.AddUniverse(self.FundamentalSelectionFunction)
self.Schedule.On(self.DateRules.MonthStart(self.symbol), self.TimeRules.AfterMarketOpen(self.symbol), self.Selection)

def OnSecuritiesChanged(self, changes: SecurityChanges) -> None:
for security in changes.AddedSecurities:
    security.SetFeeModel(CustomFeeModel())
    security.SetLeverage(self.leverage_cap*3)
    
def FundamentalSelectionFunction(self, fundamental: List[Fundamental]) -> List[Symbol]:
# update the rolling window every day
for stock in fundamental:
    symbol:Symbol = stock.Symbol
    if symbol in self.data:
        # Store daily price.
        self.data[symbol].Add(stock.AdjustedPrice)

# selection once a month
if not self.selection_flag:
    return Universe.Unchanged

selected:List[Symbol] = [x.Symbol
    for x in sorted([x for x in fundamental if x.HasFundamentalData and x.Market == 'usa' and x.AdjustedPrice >= self.min_share_price and x.MarketCap != 0],
        key = lambda x: x.DollarVolume, reverse = True)[:self.coarse_count]]

rebalance:bool = False
if self.data[self.symbol].IsReady:
    rebalance = True
beta:Dict[Symbol, float] = {}
for symbol in selected:
    # warmup price rolling windows
    if symbol not in self.data:
        self.data[symbol] = RollingWindow[float](self.period)
        history:DataFrame = self.History(symbol, self.period, Resolution.Daily)
        if history.empty:
            self.Log(f"Not enough data for {symbol} yet")
            continue
        closes:pd.Series = history.loc[symbol].close
        for time, close in closes.items():
            self.data[symbol].Add(close)
    
    if rebalance:
        if self.data[symbol].IsReady:
            market_closes:np.ndarray = np.array([x for x in self.data[self.symbol]])
            stock_closes:np.ndarray = np.array([x for x in self.data[symbol]])
            
            market_returns:np.ndarray = (market_closes[:-1] - market_closes[1:]) / market_closes[1:]
            stock_returns:np.ndarray = (stock_closes[:-1] - stock_closes[1:]) / stock_closes[1:]
            
            cov:float = np.cov(stock_returns[::-1], market_returns[::-1])[0][1]
            market_variance:float = np.var(market_returns)
            beta[symbol] = cov / market_variance
if len(beta) >= self.quantile:
    # sort by beta
    sorted_by_beta:List = sorted(beta.items(), key = lambda x: x[1], reverse=True)
    quantile:int = int(len(sorted_by_beta) / self.quantile)
    self.long = [x for x in sorted_by_beta[-quantile:]]
    self.short = [x for x in sorted_by_beta[:quantile]]
    
    # create zero-beta portfolio
    long_mean_beta:float = np.mean([x[1] for x in self.long])
    short_mean_beta:float = np.mean([x[1] for x in self.short])
    
    self.long = [x[0] for x in self.long]
    self.short = [x[0] for x in self.short]
    
    # cap leverage
    self.long_lvg = min(self.leverage_cap, abs(1. / long_mean_beta))
    self.short_lvg = min(self.leverage_cap, abs(1. / short_mean_beta))
return self.long + self.short

def OnData(self, data: Slice) -> None:
if not self.selection_flag:
    return
self.selection_flag = False

# trade execution
stocks_invested:List[Symbol] = [x.Key for x in self.Portfolio if x.Value.Invested]
for symbol in stocks_invested:
    if symbol not in self.long + self.short:
        self.Liquidate(symbol)

long_len:int = len(self.long)
short_len:int = len(self.short)

for symbol in self.long:
    if symbol in data and data[symbol]:
        self.SetHoldings(symbol, (1 / long_len) * self.long_lvg)
for symbol in self.short:
    if symbol in data and data[symbol]:
        self.SetHoldings(symbol, -(1 / short_len) * self.short_lvg)

self.long.clear()
self.short.clear()
self.long_lvg = 1
self.short_lvg = 1

def Selection(self) -> None:
self.selection_flag = True
    
# Custom fee model.
class CustomFeeModel(FeeModel):
def GetOrderFee(self, parameters):
fee = parameters.Security.Price * parameters.Order.AbsoluteQuantity * 0.00005
return OrderFee(CashAmount(fee, "USD"))