The search and investigation of stock market anomalies have always been a popular area of research among the academicians. The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) that was once very well accepted and adored the most dominant place in the traditional finance theories, somehow, in recent times, the validity of the same has been questioned. The evidence of various stock market anomalies that document excess profit making opportunities resulted in critical re-examination of EMH. Probably the two most famous anomalies that have attracted the interest of both academicians and practitioners are the ones that are based on stocks return continuation (known as momentum effect) and long-term stock returns reversal (known as overreaction effect). Ever since DeBondt and Thaler (1985) and Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) drew attention towards the overreaction and momentum effect, these have remained as some of the most hotly debated anomalies in the academic literature. The investment strategies based on such continuation and long-term return reversal effects are commonly known as momentum and contrarian strategies, respectively. Both momentum and long-term reversal effect were found to persist in a majority of the out-of-sample tests using data from the U.S. as well as other developed stock markets across different time periods. Initially, most of the early investigations were based on the U.S. stock market, but gradually the investigation for the same spread out internationally to other developed stock markets. As a result, there exists a vast majority of literature supporting momentum and contrarian profitability in majority of the developed markets.

This paper studies the Indian stock market within the framework of momentum and contrarian strategies, using the monthly-adjusted prices of all the stocks listed on National Stock exchange (NSE) having complete data for the sample period January 1997 to March 2013. The findings reveal the presence of statistically significant small term momentum and long term overreaction effect in Indian stock market. Further, the paper also evaluates the predictions of various behavioural models that propose that momentum profits eventually reversed in long term. The evidence of the paper provides support for the behavioural explanation of momentum and overreaction effect in Indian stock market.

This study is an exploration of the Indian stock market, focusing on the possible presence of momentum trading. One thing, however, should be noted. While it is true that momentum trading, which tends to generate speculative bubbles, may result in a financial market crash, its nature in contrast might depend on the nature of the economy itself. The study, while exploring the presence and nature of momentum trading on the Indian stock market in recent years, seeks to relate it to significant structural breaks in the Indian or global economy. To be precise, it outlines a potential correlation between the instability in the stock market and the speculative trading on the market, exploring the question of whether it is human psychology that drives financial markets. In the process, the choice of a significant structural break has been obvious: the global financial meltdown of 2007-2008 – a crisis that has often been referred to as the worst ever since the crash of 1929. While analyzing the nature of momentum trading on the Indian stock market with regard to the financial crisis of 2007-08, the study takes into account two major representatives of the market, the BSE (Bombay Stock Index) and NSE (National Stock Index), for the period 2005 to 2012. This study seeks to answer a few important questions. First of all, it tries to unveil the underlying structure of the market. In doing so, it examines the following issues: (i) What was the latent structure of the Indian stock market leading up to the crisis of 2007-08? Does the structure offer insights into designing profitable trading strategies? (ii) Is it possible to construct a profitable portfolio on the Indian stock market? (iii) Is there any profitable trading strategy on the Indian stock market? While exploring these issues, the study delves deeper, breaking the whole period down into two sub-periods, before the crisis of 2008 and after the crisis. The purpose of this division is to determine whether there has been any discernible change in the market structure since the shock.

Investment pioneer Len Zacks presents the latest academic research on how to beat the market using equity anomalies The Handbook of Equity Market Anomalies organizes and summarizes research carried out by hundreds of finance and accounting professors over the last twenty years to identify and measure equity market inefficiencies and provides self-directed individual investors with a framework for incorporating the results of this research into their own investment processes. Edited by Len Zacks, CEO of Zacks Investment Research, and written by leading professors who have performed groundbreaking research on specific anomalies, this book succinctly summarizes the most important anomalies that savvy investors have used for decades to beat the market. Some of the anomalies addressed include the accrual anomaly, net stock anomalies, fundamental anomalies, estimate revisions, changes in and levels of broker recommendations, earnings-per-share surprises, insider trading, price momentum and technical analysis, value and size anomalies, and several seasonal anomalies. This reliable resource also provides insights on how to best use the various anomalies in both market neutral and in long investor portfolios. A treasure trove of investment research and wisdom, the book will save you literally thousands of hours by distilling the essence of twenty years of academic research into eleven clear chapters and providing the framework and conviction to develop market-beating strategies. Strips the academic jargon from the research and highlights the actual returns generated by the anomalies, and documented in the academic literature Provides a theoretical framework within which to understand the concepts of risk adjusted returns and market inefficiencies Anomalies are selected by Len Zacks, a pioneer in the field of investing As the founder of Zacks Investment Research, Len Zacks pioneered the concept of the earnings-per-share surprise in 1982 and developed the Zacks Rank, one of the first anomaly-based stock selection tools. Today, his firm manages U.S. equities for individual and institutional investors and provides investment software and investment data to all types of investors. Now, with his new book, he shows you what it takes to build a quant process to outperform an index based on academically documented market inefficiencies and anomalies.

Stock prices are generally governed by rational inputs and irrationality in the market can cause only daily, weekly and short run fluctuations. While irrationality takes prices away from its intrinsic value, rationality brings it back. Contrarian investment strategy is followed under the assumption that typical herd behaviour leads to overreaction to information and hence stocks which have gone up recently is overvalued or vice versa. By taking the opposite position, contrarian expects profit when the market turns rational. On the other hand, momentum investment strategy is followed by moving along with the tide. Here it is found useful to follow the crowd and be a part of it. But if market is efficient in pricing, then both these strategies will fail.The present study is conducted to test the effectiveness of these two investment strategies in the Indian stock market. As a first step to this, the researcher tested the market efficiency of Indian stock market. Indian Market is found to be Weak-form inefficient and Strong form efficient. However, the study found out that momentum and contrarian strategies could not deliver any superior returns to Indian investors during the study period. Separate analysis was carried out by the researcher to test the efficiency o these tools, when Indian markets were severely hit by global financial crisis. Interdependency of Indian Stock Market with other leading emerging markets was also part of the study. The results confirmed the evidence of significant correlation with these markets. The study is expected to help the Indian investors while taking various investment decisions.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) has been one of the dominant topics in the financial research literature. The main purpose of this study is to explore the existence of return continuation in the Indian Stock Markets, thus investigating its efficiency at the weak form level (Fama,1970). Momentum strategies which buy stocks that have performed well in the past and sell stocks that have poor performances previously - generate significant positive returns. The weekly momentum strategies can be executed by the investor to generate significant profits. The explanation of momentum remains challenge in literature. The behavioral factors may account for the momentum phenomena.