Peak Diversification: How Many Stocks Best Diversify an Equity Portfolio?

Maybe the most important tradeoff for fairness portfolio managers is between specialization and threat discount. The less shares they analysis and embrace of their portfolios, the higher their understanding of the underlying firms and the higher their probabilities of producing extra returns by specializing in their high-conviction positions. On the flip facet, the less shares they maintain, the higher the doubtless portfolio volatility and the higher the percentages of outsized losses.

So what’s the appropriate stability? As shares are added to a portfolio, does volatility lower equally throughout all fairness portfolio varieties? Or does it fluctuate relying on model? At what level is peak diversification achieved?

To search out out, we in contrast diversification advantages throughout eight completely different portfolio types: small cap vs. massive cap, worth vs. progress, dividend vs. non-dividend, and US home vs. worldwide.

We constructed our portfolios out of the highest and backside efficiency quartiles of the NASDAQ and NYSE shares similar to our varied model components. We constructed a random portfolio from a given variety of equally weighted shares in every model and calculated its volatility utilizing month-to-month returns over the 15 years from 2005 to 2020. 

Then, after deciding on one other random portfolio of the identical dimension, we performed the identical process 100 occasions, averaging the volatility throughout all these iterations.

For every model cohort, we got here up with a median volatility for every portfolio primarily based on the variety of shares it contained.

What was the distinction between large-cap and small-cap portfolios? The typical volatility of a large-cap 10-stock portfolio was 20%. A extra numerous large-cap portfolio of 40 shares solely lowered volatility to 17%. So including 30 shares diminished volatility by simply 3 share factors.

Peak Diversification: Small-Cap vs. Massive-Cap Portfolios

Including shares to small-cap portfolios, however, introduced a lot higher advantages. The typical small-cap 10-stock portfolio had a imply volatility of simply over 32% in comparison with 25% for the typical small-cap 40-stock portfolio. So 30 extra shares introduced greater than twice the diversification profit to the small-cap portfolio than to its large-cap counterpart.

An identical story performed out with dividend and non-dividend portfolios. If the typical non-dividend portfolio went from 10 to 40 shares, volatility fell by 5 share factors on common, from 26% right down to 21%. After diversifying the dividend portfolio from 10 to 40 shares, volatility fell from 19% to 16%.

Peak Diversification: Dividend vs. Non-Dividend Portfolios

Progress vs. worth, nonetheless, confirmed a special relationship: There wasn’t a lot variation in volatility because the variety of shares elevated and the chance discount was constant throughout each cohorts.

Peak Diversification: Worth vs. Progress Portfolios

Lastly, for portfolios composed of US home and worldwide shares listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE, including extra shares to the US portfolio barely diminished volatility relative to growing the variety of shares within the worldwide portfolio.

Peak Diversification: US Home vs. Worldwide Portfolio

All in all, these outcomes reveal that efficient diversification relies on portfolio model. For giant-cap portfolios, there’s little to be gained by diversifying past 15 inventory or so. For small-cap portfolios, peak diversification is achieved with round 26 shares. The identical applies for non-dividend portfolios, whereas progress and worth portfolios want a roughly equal variety of shares to optimally cut back volatility.

So what’s the important thing takeaway? In terms of peak diversification in fairness portfolios, one dimension doesn’t match all. And that’s one thing fairness managers ought to remember when balancing the advantages and liabilities of specialization vs. threat discount.

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All posts are the opinion of the creator. As such, they shouldn’t be construed as funding recommendation, nor do the opinions expressed essentially mirror the views of CFA Institute or the creator’s employer.

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