As we announced a few weeks ago, our very own Andrew Gogerty won 3rd place in the 2015 NAAIM Wagner Award paper competition for his research paper Momentum AND Diversification: A powerful risk-adjusted combination.

Here’s the abstract:

Diversification is discussed in nearly every portfolio construction conversation as a risk management tool. Momentum, on the other hand, generally remains focused on results within an asset class (i.e. ranking stocks within an index, or broad equity sectors within an equity allocation) and is often framed as a total return concept. As a result, the two concepts rarely sit next to each other in a single conversation.

In this paper, we examine risk-adjusted returns generated by combining momentum and diversification across a spectrum of static asset allocation portfolios. The improved risk-adjusted total return highlights the positive impact that can be gained by utilizing a simple momentum framework to adjust the allocation not only in a simplistic allocation example, but also across a spectrum of static portfolios.

We also demonstrate the potential benefit of utilizing this framework over a spectrum of globally diversified, total portfolio solutions. By treating a portfolio as an asset class, we are able to capture the effects (and, hopefully, benefits) of diversification within our momentum selection process in a completely implicit manner.

You can read the full paper here.

Corey is co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research, a quantitative asset manager offering a suite of separately managed accounts and mutual funds. At Newfound, Corey is responsible for portfolio management, investment research, strategy development, and communication of the firm's views to clients. Prior to offering asset management services, Newfound licensed research from the quantitative investment models developed by Corey. At peak, this research helped steer the tactical allocation decisions for upwards of $10bn. Corey holds a Master of Science in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, cum laude, from Cornell University. You can connect with Corey on LinkedIn or Twitter.