Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Magic formula optimisation in the South African Market

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of the value investing strategy commonly referred to as the "Magic Formula", which was first introduced by Greenblatt (2006) and uses the return on capital and earning yield ratios as the basis for stock selection, in the South African mark...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ker-Fox, Jason G
Other Authors: West, Darron
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Finance and Tax 2017
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of the value investing strategy commonly referred to as the "Magic Formula", which was first introduced by Greenblatt (2006) and uses the return on capital and earning yield ratios as the basis for stock selection, in the South African market. The study will build on the work previously performed by Howard (2015) by challenging the "Magic Formula" portfolio composition assumptions. In doing so, optimal combinations of holding period and portfolio size which: maximise the geometric mean return, minimise the volatility of returns and maximise the risk adjusted return, shall be determined. The scope of this study includes all companies, excluding financial services entities, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which exceed a market capitalisation of R 100 million, for the period 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2015. The results showed that by adjusting certain portfolio parameters the overall performance of the "Magic Formula" on both a geometric mean and risk adjusted basis can be increased. However, the "Magic Formula" still provides an insufficient amount of evidence to conclude, on a statistically significant basis, an outperformance of the investment strategy relative to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange All Share Index. Accordingly, the study makes several contributions to the literature. Firstly, it provides direct evidence of the relationship between value investing portfolio composition and the returns generated, indicating that excess returns can be achieved when the portfolio composition is adjusted. Secondly, albeit not on a