After understanding the difference between momentum investing and strategic investment, investment funds may opt for strategies known as value investing and growth investing. Here you will learn the difference between the two and, as a result, will be able to form a broader picture about the different investment strategies. How do you choose the best investment strategy?
For the entire period analyzed, from the end of December 1999 to the end of December 2016, value stocks in Thailand, represented by the MSCI Thailand Value Index, gained 156% while growth stocks, represented by the MSCI Thailand Growth Index, gained 120%. When applying a formal statistical test to the monthly returns during that period, such as the Wilcoxon test, and at a 5% significance level the hypothesis that the medians of the returns are equal is rejected, supporting the view that value stocks outperform growth stocks over the long term. However, when the performance of the individual years is compared, the results are more mixed. For 10 of the 17 years analyzed, the point estimate of the returns was higher for value stocks than for growth stocks. The results of the Wilcoxon test suggest that the median returns are statistically different every year with the only exception of 2016. When risk adjusted returns are used, using the Sharpe ratio, it is obtained that the point estimate of the Sharpe ration for value stocks is higher in 9 out of the 17 years analyzed. This would seem to indicate that while over long time frames, such as 17 years, value stocks did outperform growth stocks, over shorter time fames such as one calendar year that was not necessarily the case. In fact, in many occasions, over a one calendar year time frame, growth stocks statistically significantly outperformed value stocks. When using portfolios built according to P/E, P/B, cash flow per share, and five-year growth rates the results fail to reject the hypothesis that the medians of the returns are different. This is a surprising result and it might be related to the fact that classification of companies into the value and growth categories is a process more complex than just picking companies using a single criteria such as P/E. The poor liquidity of some of the stocks might also be a fact impacting comparisons of returns.