Markets React Very Well to UK Referendum - Alfred Lettner
Senior Investment Managers, David Perry and Edward Smith discuss the impact of Brexit.
Perg, Austria, August 02, 2016 --(PR.com)-- A single issue for an island nation sparks financial market panic, or not.
Economic theory generally assumes that investors are rational and that stock and bond prices accurately reflect all current information about these investments. Events like Britain’s June 23rd vote to leave the European Union often raise doubts about these theories.
Fortunately, economic research can still help explain these big price moves, and current market indicators suggest the price moves are not that big after all. Markets may not be as crazy as we perceive them to be.
"Behavioral finance is a branch of economic research that includes psychological studies of investor behavior, such as attitudes towards risk and belief about probabilities," explained Edward Smith, a Senior Investment Manager at Alfred Lettner, the independent family-run brokerage in Austria. "First, our pain from losses exceeds our joy from gains."
Smith continued, "Translating this to investment choices means that we generally take on more risk only after making good gains, and stop taking risks altogether when occurring losses. This tends to exacerbate these same trends, making the market more volatile in the short-run than it would be otherwise."
David Perry, also a Senior Investment Manager at Alfred Lettner, added, "A second psychological factor is our beliefs about probabilities. When we witness an event that rarely occurs, we overreact."
"So behavioral finance teaches us to expect excessive short-term trends and overreactions to events like the British vote," Perry said. But how much volatility is too much?
A widely cited measure of stock market volatility and risk is the CBOE Market Volatility Index, or VIX. The index reflects the cost of hedging risk through the sale or purchase of option contracts on the largest U.S. stocks. This cost rises when prices move dramatically in one direction or another, reflecting greater uncertainty over what their price will be in the future.
The VIX rose to 25 after the British vote, but quickly fell back to 15 by the end of June. Both these levels are not far from index’s long-run norm of 20.
Two key measures of stock values are also not out of line. Stocks in the Dow now sell at an average rate of 19 times past earnings and yield over 2.5 percent from dividends, just above the long-run average for both.
"The Brits may have surprised us," said Smith, "but the markets not crazy."
"We saw a huge shock in the days following the vote, but since then, the market has bounced back with a vengeance and we are seeing certain sectors trading even higher than before the vote," concluded Perry.
Economic theory generally assumes that investors are rational and that stock and bond prices accurately reflect all current information about these investments. Events like Britain’s June 23rd vote to leave the European Union often raise doubts about these theories.
Fortunately, economic research can still help explain these big price moves, and current market indicators suggest the price moves are not that big after all. Markets may not be as crazy as we perceive them to be.
"Behavioral finance is a branch of economic research that includes psychological studies of investor behavior, such as attitudes towards risk and belief about probabilities," explained Edward Smith, a Senior Investment Manager at Alfred Lettner, the independent family-run brokerage in Austria. "First, our pain from losses exceeds our joy from gains."
Smith continued, "Translating this to investment choices means that we generally take on more risk only after making good gains, and stop taking risks altogether when occurring losses. This tends to exacerbate these same trends, making the market more volatile in the short-run than it would be otherwise."
David Perry, also a Senior Investment Manager at Alfred Lettner, added, "A second psychological factor is our beliefs about probabilities. When we witness an event that rarely occurs, we overreact."
"So behavioral finance teaches us to expect excessive short-term trends and overreactions to events like the British vote," Perry said. But how much volatility is too much?
A widely cited measure of stock market volatility and risk is the CBOE Market Volatility Index, or VIX. The index reflects the cost of hedging risk through the sale or purchase of option contracts on the largest U.S. stocks. This cost rises when prices move dramatically in one direction or another, reflecting greater uncertainty over what their price will be in the future.
The VIX rose to 25 after the British vote, but quickly fell back to 15 by the end of June. Both these levels are not far from index’s long-run norm of 20.
Two key measures of stock values are also not out of line. Stocks in the Dow now sell at an average rate of 19 times past earnings and yield over 2.5 percent from dividends, just above the long-run average for both.
"The Brits may have surprised us," said Smith, "but the markets not crazy."
"We saw a huge shock in the days following the vote, but since then, the market has bounced back with a vengeance and we are seeing certain sectors trading even higher than before the vote," concluded Perry.
Contact
Alfred Lettner
Carsten Klein
004312297702
www.alfredlettner.com
Carsten Klein
004312297702
www.alfredlettner.com
Contact
Categories