VOLUME 45, NUMBER 1 jpm.iprjournals.com FALL 2018 Fact, Fiction, and the Size Effect RON ALQUIST, RONEN ISraEL, AND TOBIAS MOSKOWITZ Fact, Fiction, and the Size Effect RON ALQUIST, RONEN ISraEL, AND TOBIAS MOSKOWITZ permission. Publisher without RON ALQUIST fter confronting the myths sur- a second source of priced risk beyond the is a vice president at AQR rounding momentum investing1 market. According to this view, both a stock’s Capital Management in 2 electronically and value investing, we realized market beta and its size were now required Greenwich, CT. post
[email protected] two things: 1) We had passed over to understand its expected returns. As long to Athe first anomaly discovered in academic as size was correlated with a fundamental or RONEN ISraEL finance and the one that had been around source of risk, rational investors needed to be user, is a principal at AQR the longest—size, and 2) despite its longevity compensated for holding assets more exposed Capital Management in and the attention it has received, there is still to that risk. Other scholars interpreted the Greenwich, CT. much confusion and debate surrounding the evidence of a size premium as a more fun-
[email protected] unauthorized size anomaly. damental conceptual challenge to market an TOBIAS MOSKOWITZ The size effect is the phenomenon in efficiency, in which small stocks relative to to is the Dean Takahashi which small stocks (i.e., those with lower large stocks were simply mispriced, having professor of finance market capitalizations), on average, outper- nothing to do with compensation for risk.