We demonstrate that sorting stocks on sales seasonality predicts future abnormal returns. A long-short strategy of buying low-sales-season stocks and shorting high-sales-season stocks generates an annual alpha of 8.4%. Further, this strategy has become stronger over time, generating an annual alpha of approximately 15% over the last decade. This seasonal effect predicts future stock returns in cross-sectional regressions, and is independent of previously documented seasonal anomalies. Moreover, the alphas from this trading strategy cannot be explained by differences in stock market liquidity, systematic risk, asymmetric information, or financing decisions. Further tests indicate that this phenomenon may be driven partially by seasonal fluctuations in the level of investor attention.

Believing "high-risk equals high-reward" is holding your portfolio hostage High Returns from Low Risk proves that low-volatility, low-risk portfolios beat high-volatility portfolios hands down, and shows you how to take advantage of this paradox to dramatically improve your returns. Investors traditionally view low-risk stocks as safe but unprofitable, but this old canard is based on a flawed premise; it fails to see beyond the monthly horizon, and ignores compounding returns. This book updates the thinking and brings reality to modelling to show how low-risk stocks actually outperform high-risk stocks by an order of magnitude. Easy to read and easy to implement, the plan presented here will help you construct a portfolio that delivers higher returns per unit of risk, and explains how to achieve excellent investment results over the long term. Do you still believe that investors are rewarded for bearing risk, and that the higher the risk, the greater the reward? That old axiom is holding you back, and it is time to start seeing the whole picture. This book shows you, through deep historical simulation, how to reap the rewards of smarter investing. Learn how and why low-risk, low-volatility stocks beat the market Discover the formula that outperforms Greenblatt's Construct your own low-risk portfolio Select the right ETF or low-risk fund to manage your money Great returns and lower risk sound like a winning combination — what happens once everyone is doing it? The beauty of the low-risk strategy is that it continues to work even after the paradox is widely known; long-term investment success is possible for anyone who can shake off the entrenched wisdom and go low-risk. High Returns from Low Risk provides the proof, model and strategy to reign in your exposure while raking in the profit.

Acclaim for Joel Greenblatt's New York Times bestseller THE LITTLE BOOK THAT BEATS THE MARKET "One of the best, clearest guides to value investing out there." —Wall Street Journal "Simply perfect. One of the most important investment books of the last fifty years!" —Michael Price "A landmark book-a stunningly simple and low-risk way to significantly beat the market!" —Michael Steinhardt, the dean of Wall Street hedge-fund managers "The best book on the subject in years." —Financial Times "The best thing about this book-from which I intend to steal liberally for the next edition of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need-is that most people won't believe it. . . . That's good, because the more people who know about a good thing, the more expensive that thing ordinarily becomes. . . ." —Andrew Tobias, author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need "This book is the finest simple distillation of modern value investing principles ever written. It should be mandatory reading for all serious investors from the fourth grade on up." —Professor Bruce Greenwald, director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing, Columbia Business School

A new but timeless strategy and mindset that should greatly help investors lower downside risk while achieving market outperformance In The 52-Week Low Formula: A Contrarian Strategy that Lowers Risk, Beats the Market, and Overcomes Human Emotion, wealth manager Luke L. Wiley, CFP examines the principles behind selecting the outstanding companies and great investment opportunities that are being overlooked. Along the way, Wiley offers a melding of the strategies used by such investment giants as Warren Buffett, Howard Marks, Michael Porter, Seth Klarman, and Pat Dorsey. His proven formula helps investors get the upper hand by identifying solid companies that are poised for growth but have fallen out of the spotlight. Shows you how to investigate companies and identify opportunities Includes detailed discussions of competitive advantage, purchase value, return on invested capital, and debt levels Presents several case studies to examine companies that have overcome obstacles by trading around their 52-week lows The 52-Week Low Formula is a must-read for investors and financial advisors who want to break through conventional strategies and avoid common mistakes.

Two years in MBA school won't teach you how to double the market's return. Two hours with The Little Book That Beats the Market will. In The Little Book, Joel Greenblatt, Founder and Managing Partner at Gotham Capital (with average annualized returns of 40% for over 20 years), does more than simply set out the basic principles for successful stock market investing. He provides a "magic formula" that is easy to use and makes buying good companies at bargain prices automatic. Though the formula has been extensively tested and is a breakthrough in the academic and professional world, Greenblatt explains it using 6th grade math, plain language and humor. You'll learn how to use this low risk method to beat the market and professional managers by a wide margin. You'll also learn how to view the stock market, why success eludes almost all individual and professional investors, and why the formula will continue to work even after everyone "knows" it.

In 2005, Joel Greenblatt published a book that is already considered one of the classics of finance literature. In The Little Book that Beats the Market—a New York Times bestseller with 300,000 copies in print—Greenblatt explained how investors can outperform the popular market averages by simply and systematically applying a formula that seeks out good businesses when they are available at bargain prices. Now, with a new Introduction and Afterword for 2010, The Little Book that Still Beats the Market updates and expands upon the research findings from the original book. Included are data and analysis covering the recent financial crisis and model performance through the end of 2009. In a straightforward and accessible style, the book explores the basic principles of successful stock market investing and then reveals the author’s time-tested formula that makes buying above average companies at below average prices automatic. Though the formula has been extensively tested and is a breakthrough in the academic and professional world, Greenblatt explains it using 6th grade math, plain language and humor. He shows how to use his method to beat both the market and professional managers by a wide margin. You’ll also learn why success eludes almost all individual and professional investors, and why the formula will continue to work even after everyone “knows” it. While the formula may be simple, understanding why the formula works is the true key to success for investors. The book will take readers on a step-by-step journey so that they can learn the principles of value investing in a way that will provide them with a long term strategy that they can understand and stick with through both good and bad periods for the stock market. As the Wall Street Journal stated about the original edition, “Mr. Greenblatt…says his goal was to provide advice that, while sophisticated, could be understood and followed by his five children, ages 6 to 15. They are in luck. His ‘Little Book’ is one of the best, clearest guides to value investing out there.”

"Teaches essential accounting terminology and techniques that serious stock investors need to know." -- Preface