The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered an unprecedented outpouring of humanitarian and military aid. Protecting those supply chains is essential for delivering materiel to the frontlines, says Vince Castillo, an assistant professor of marketing and logistics and Iraq War veteran.

Research by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and PhD student Byungwook Kim, finds that thematic ETFs have a poor record of returns despite their strategies’ appeal.

Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate at Fisher, and his colleagues examined mutual fund flows spanning1991-2017 to determine if individuals are just naïve performance chasers, unaware of the financial literature, or whether they are sophisticated investors.

In approving Bitcoin futures ETFs but rejecting spot price competitors, many observers feel that the SEC is being contradictory in is rulings. One concern is price manipulation, as explored in a paper by Assistant Professor of Finance Amin Shams and John M. Griffin, of the University of Texas at Austin that concluded that about half of bitcoin's rise to a total market value of $326 billion was due to the influence of a manipulation scheme. 

While the term ‘number go up’ was in circulation elsewhere before the 2009 creation of bitcoin, let alone the more recent boom, it points to a fundamental question at the heart of a $2tn-plus industry: what, and who, influences the value of crypto? Bitcoin’s connections to other cryptocurrencies have also raised concerns about its pricing, which was explored in a paper authored by Amin Shams, assistant professor of finance, and a colleague.

New research by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and his colleagues empirically study the impact of large institutional ownership on stock prices in the U.S. market.

Thanks to a generous gift from Fintech71, The Ohio State University will offer the first in a university-wide effort to boost the region's FinTech ecosystem through the FinTech @ Ohio State and Beyond conference. The virtual event will be held October 27-28.

COVID was a paradigm shift for thematic ETFs, satisfying investor sentiment toward disruptive trends and sustainable investing while covering almost any theme investors desire. Where do they sit in a portfolio? Research from Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, Fisher PhD candidate Byungwook Kim and their colleagues, sheds light on the performance of thematic ETFs.

For decades, individual investors have been moving billions of dollars in and out of thousands of mutual funds. The question is: why? New research by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and his colleagues Andrea Rossi and Jiacui Li and Yang Song tries to answer this question in a forthcoming paper in the Review of Financial Studies.

Research by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and Justin Birru, associate professor of finance, helps add context to the discussion about the historical and actual performance and management fees associated with hedge funds. 

Assistant Professor of Finance Amin Shams explains one reason why cryptocurrency crashes often happen on weekends, volatility that has drawn scrutiny from regulators weighing the future of digital currency.

Research from Rene Stulz, the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics, shows the percentage of total corporate profits coming from the 100 biggest earners has skyrocketed over the past three decades. And what previously was a danger sign —  outsized valuation — may now be the new normal.

Rene Stulz, the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics, and his colleagues detail a new paper that explores whether a firm’s corporate policies are influenced more by index peers after it becomes a member of the S&P 500 than before.

With investments, popular is not better. And the increase of new cash into stocks doesn't always portend good news. In fact, research by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and Byungwook Kim, focused on the specialized ETFs that are created to capitalize on investor fads and market trends, and which typically receive a big influx of cash soon after launch. They found that these ETFs over their first five years after launch lag the market on a risk-adjusted basis by 5% per year on average.

Research from Rene Stulz, the Everett D. Reese Chair in Banking and Monetary Finance, supports the belief that the shift to a “winner-take-all” economy, in which the largest corporations earn an increasing share of all corporate profits, has resulted in industries being dominated by their very largest companies.

A major trader of digital currency went live on the NASDAQ Wednesday, soaring and plunging in the first few hours of trading. Although it’s an exciting day for digital currency, it doesn’t mark the end of dollars and cents, says Matt Sheridan, a senior lecturer in finance. It does, however, legitimize other crypto assets such as Bitcoin.

Thematic ETFs are one of the big investment stories of the last year, with major success in areas such as clean energy. Yet niche investments come with risks, including the prospect of buying in at the top and structural complications, according to new research from Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and his colleagues.

A study by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and Fisher PhD candidate Byung Wook Kim finds that many new ETFs invest in overvalued stocks, and then lag behind the broad market’s returns.

Finance lecturer Matt Sheridan on the Robinhood and GameStop situation: "This is so crazy that if this was the plot of an episode of Showtime’s "Billions," people would think it’s too unrealistic." He explains the factors at play in the unique investing situation.

Research conducted by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and his colleagues, shows average returns underperform the market by about four percentage points a year. The researchers argue that the huge growth in the ETF industry has intensified competition to the point that issuers are “competing for investors’ attention by emphasizing either the low price or the product’s unique features."

New research from Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, doctoral student Byungwook Kim and their colleagues found that “Demand for specialized ETFs comes from unsophisticated investors who chase investment ideas that, in their view, will produce higher expected returns.” The result are overvalued stocks that actually lost as much as 5% per year on a risk-adjusted basis between 2000 and 2019.

Are specialized Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs) that are built around hot industries like cannabis, cybersecurity, and work-from-home businesses good ideas? Research from Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and PhD candidate Byungwook Kim provides a cautionary tale for investors. 

Research from a pair of finance faculty members, including Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, provides context to a closer look at the performance of specialized — or thematic — Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs).

In 2017, Alex Pickard had made so much money from Bitcoin that he quit his job in finance and moved to Washington state to mine digital coins full time. Less than a year later, the venture had failed and he was back at quant firm Research Affiliates.

In a recent study, Xue Wang, associate professor of accounting and management information systems, and her colleagues move the debate on shareholder lawsuits forward by studying the impact of shareholder litigation threats on CEOs’ employment.