Arik Ben Dor
Tuesday, September 4th
5:45 PM Registration 6:00 PM Seminar Begins 7:30 PM Reception
We examine the "Low-Vol" effect across the capital structure by forming two portfolios of stocks and bonds issued by the same HY-rated companies that are risk-matched ex-ante, and track their performance post formation. We find very strong and persistent evidence that the bond portfolios outperform the matched stock portfolios in different periods, across all industries and credit ratings, in both US and European markets and even after fallen angels are excluded. Furthermore, at the company level bonds outperformed the stocks 70% of the time. Results are insensitive to the risk-matching approach used.
Biography
Arik Ben Dor is a Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Equity Research at Barclays.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Ben Dor oversaw large scale research projects in rates, credit, equities, and hedge funds used by the largest institutional investors globally, including central banks, Sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, insurance companies, pensions and hedge funds. He co-authored two books on quantitative investing in credit securities and over a dozen articles in leading industry journals such as the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Fixed Income, Journal of Investment Management, and Journal of Alternative Investments. One of his articles received the Martello award for the 2007 best practitioner paper.
Dr. Ben Dor's research on ‘DTS (Duration Times Spread)’, a new approach to measuring the spread risk of corporate bonds and credit default swaps changed industry practices and was widely adopted by credit investors globally. In 2018, he was ranked 1st in the II All-America Fixed Income Research survey in the Quantitative Analysis category. Dr. Ben Dor also conducted research on ‘cloning’ hedge funds was the basis for several products and was awarded a U.S. patent.
His work on exploring the cross-asset relation between stocks and bonds was the basis for constructing systematic equity strategies such as momentum and ‘value’ based on credit signals, and the usage of equity derivatives for hedging high-yield bonds. His systematic strategies were adopted by some of the most prominent quantitative hedge funds and ‘long-only’ asset managers and were presented in leading industry conferences.
Prior to Barclays, Dr. Ben Dor worked at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. He holds a PhD in Finance from the Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University, and completed his B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Tel Aviv University, Cum Laude.
About the Series
The IAQF's Thalesians Seminar Series is a joint effort on the part of the IAQF (www.iaqf.org) and the Thalesians (www.thalesians.com). The goal of the series is to provide a forum for the exchange of new ideas and results related to the field of quantitative finance. This goal is accomplished by hosting seminars where leading practitioners and academics present new work, and following the seminars with a reception to facilitate further interaction and discussion.
