Lu Zhang On The Evolution of Asset Pricing Models And His First Principles Approach to Improve Them

11/21/21 • 55 min

Asset pricing models have evolved significantly over the past several decades. From the Capital Asset Pricing Model to Fama and French's 3 Factor Model to their more recent 5 and 6 Factor Models, academic research has continued to work to improve our understanding of what drives stock prices.

But our guest this week thinks asset pricing models might need a revolution more than evolution.

We speak with Lu Zhang, who is the John W. Galbreath Chair and Professor of Finance at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. He is also the creator of the Q factor model, which takes a first principles approach to asset pricing that starts with economic theory rather than adopting the framework of previous models.

We discuss the evolution of asset pricing models over time and take a detailed look at the major models that have come along the way. We then look at the philosophical arguments for why traditional asset pricing models may be taking the wrong approach and look at the details of the Q factor model.

We hope you enjoy the discussion.

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Excess Returns is an investing podcast hosted by Jack Forehand (@practicalquant) and Justin Carbonneau (@jjcarbonneau), partners at Validea. Justin and Jack discuss a wide range of investing topics including factor investing, value investing, momentum investing, multi-factor investing, trend following, market valuation and more with the goal of helping those who watch and listen become better long term investors.

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