An empirical investigation of the effectiveness of different asset choice methodologies under different market conditions

The project “An Empirical Investigation of the Effectiveness of Different Asset Choice Methodologies under different Market Conditions” by Johannes Schriefers extends research on the profitability and implied riskiness of different investment strategies. While existing research mainly investigates the performance of portfolio formation strategies on a stand-alone basis, this study compares the performance of various portfolio formation methodologies under different market conditions and across different industries. More specifically, I study and compare returns, risk and abnormal returns of portfolios based on the Fama & French 5 Factor and the 3 Factor models, based on the changes as well as the level of financial ratios, and finally based on analyst forecasts and trade recommendations. The sample analyzed is the whole NYSE between 2005 and 2018. By investigating this comparably long period, I am able to examine the portfolio performances across different market conditions. Here, the period of the financial crisis beginning in 2007 is investigated, next to the market recovery in the years after the crisis and stable market conditions in the recent years. After carefully comparing the corresponding portfolio performances, the portfolios based on the delta of ratios, the level of ratios and the portfolio based on the 5FF methodology appear to provide the best results. While the portfolios based on the financial analysis are most profitable over the crisis and market recovery period, the 5FF portfolio performs superior under stable market conditions. Surprisingly, analyst forecasts and trade recommendations are not as effective. These conclusions have been confirmed across different industries.Este projeto é uma extensão da investigação já existente relativa à rentabilidade e risco inerente a diversas estratégias de investimento. Enquanto que a pesquisa anterior examina a performance isolada de portefólios formados seguindo múltiplas metodologias, este estudo estabelece uma comparação entre a performance desses mesmos portefólios. Estes são comparados sob diversas condições de mercado e avaliados em diferentes setores de atividade. Especificamente, estudo e comparo o retorno, risco e retornos anormais dos vários portefólios baseados nos modelos Fama & French 5 Factors e 3 Factors, na variação e nível de rácios financeiros e, finalmente, nas previsões e recomendações dos analistas financeiros. Para investigar estas metodologias adotei como amostra a NYSE entre 2005 e 2018. A investigação de um período de tempo longo permite estabelecer comparações entre a performance dos portefólios sob diferentes condições de mercado. Neste caso, o período de crise financeira que se iniciou em 2007 é analisado, bem II como o período de recuperação que se sucedeu, e os mais recentes anos de estabilidade. Depois de uma análise cuidadosa da performance dos vários portefólios conclui-se que os portefólios baseados no delta dos rácios, no nível dos rácios e no modelo 5FF parecem produzir os melhores resultados. Embora os portefólios baseados na análise financeira sejam mais rentáveis no período de crise e de recuperação, o portefólio 5FF demonstra ter uma performance superior num mercado estável. Surpreendentemente, a metodologia baseada nas previsões e recomendações dos analistas não é tão eficaz. Estes resultados são verdadeiros para as várias indústrias analisadas

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Phonological facilitation in picture-word interference experiments: Effects of stimulus onset asynchrony and types of interfering stimuli

Subjects named pictures while hearing distractor words that shared word-initial or word-final segments with the picture names or were unrelated to the picture names. The relative timing of distractor and picture presentation was varied. Compared with unrelated distractors, both types of related distractors facilitated picture naming under certain timing conditions. Begin-related distractors facilitated the naming responses if the shared segments began 150 ms before, at, or 150 ms after picture onset. By contrast, end-related distractors only facilitated the responses if the shared segments began at or 150 ms after picture onset. The results suggest that the phonological encoding of the beginning of a word is initiated before the encoding of its end

Processing derived verbs: The role of motor-relatedness and type of morphological priming

Item does not contain fulltextThere is no consensus on whether derived words are decomposed or processed holistically, and on which factors this depends. Using overt visual priming with lexical decision involving Dutch derived particle verbs, we manipulated three factors: semantic transparency of the derived words, motor-relatedness of the simple verb constituent, and type of morphological priming. Experiments 1 and 2 (using simple verbs primed by their derivations or vice versa) showed overall facilitatory morphological priming effects, independent of transparency or motor-relatedness. In Experiment 3 (using priming between the derivation and a word semantically related to its stem), only transparent motor-related derivations were primed. The combined results suggest that the processing of derivations is influenced by priming type: constituent priming (Exp. 1 & 2) may induce a bias towards a decompositional processing strategy, possibly by directing attention to the stimuli's morphological structure. The role of motor-relatedness is discussed in the context of embodied cognition theory.18 p

Is beta in agreement with the relatives? Using relative clause sentences to investigate MEG beta power dynamics during sentence comprehension.

There remains some debate about whether beta power effects observed during sentence comprehension reflect ongoing syntactic unification operations (beta-syntax hypothesis), or instead reflect maintenance or updating of the sentence-level representation (beta-maintenance hypothesis). In this study, we used magnetoencephalography to investigate beta power neural dynamics while participants read relative clause sentences that were initially ambiguous between a subject- or an object-relative reading. An additional condition included a grammatical violation at the disambiguation point in the relative clause sentences. The beta-maintenance hypothesis predicts a decrease in beta power at the disambiguation point for unexpected (and less preferred) object-relative clause sentences and grammatical violations, as both signal a need to update the sentence-level representation. While the beta-syntax hypothesis also predicts a beta power decrease for grammatical violations due to a disruption of syntactic unification operations, it instead predicts an increase in beta power for the object-relative clause condition because syntactic unification at the point of disambiguation becomes more demanding. We observed decreased beta power for both the agreement violation and object-relative clause conditions in typical left hemisphere language regions, which provides compelling support for the beta-maintenance hypothesis. Mid-frontal theta power effects were also present for grammatical violations and object-relative clause sentences, suggesting that violations and unexpected sentence interpretations are registered as conflicts by the brain's domain-general error detection system.</p

Language Conflict in the Bilingual Brain

The large majority of humankind is more or less fluent in 2 or even more languages. This raises the fundamental question how the language network in the brain is organized such that the correct target language is selected at a particular occasion. Here we present behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging data showing that bilingual processing leads to language conflict in the bilingual brain even when the bilinguals’ task only required target language knowledge. This finding demonstrates that the bilingual brain cannot avoid language conflict, because words from the target and nontarget languages become automatically activated during reading. Importantly, stimulus-based language conflict was found in brain regions in the LIPC associated with phonological and semantic processing, whereas response-based language conflict was only found in the pre-supplementary motor area/anterior cingulate cortex when language conflict leads to response conflicts