Mar 18, 2009
Q & A
Is diversification working today, when we need it most?
EFF/KRF: When overall market volatility increases, idiosyncratic (security-specific) volatility also tends to increase. For example, market volatility is currently quite high, and the dispersion of the cross section of stock returns (which is idiosyncratic volatility) is also unusually high. Diversification has no effect on the volatility of the overall market, but it reduces the effect of idiosyncratic volatility on a portfolio's return. To put it differently, active investment is a riskier strategy when volatility is high because active portfolios are, almost by definition, poorly diversified.
In short, diversification is now more important than usual.
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ABOUT FAMA AND FRENCH
Eugene F. Fama
The Robert R.
McCormick Distinguished
Service Professor of
Finance at the University
of Chicago Booth School
of Business
Kenneth R. French
The Carl E. and Catherine
M. Heidt Professor of
Finance at the Tuck
School of Business at
Dartmouth College
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Dimensional Fund Advisors Ltd. is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority (FRN: 150100), is registered in England and Wales under Company No. 02569601 and VAT No. 577327607. The registered office address of Dimensional Fund Advisors Ltd. is 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ, United Kingdom. Dimensional Fund Advisors Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dimensional Fund Advisors.