Myopic Loss Aversion and Margin of Safety: the Risk of Value Investing

This paper examines the risk of value investing from the point of view of a myopic loss-averse investor holding a diversified portfolio and relying on infrequent portfolio rebalancing. This closely resembles purchasing a large portfolio, such as those created by BARRA, and following a buy-and-hold investment strategy. In these circumstances, which portfolio, value or growth, is riskier to a myopic lossaverse investor? To facilitate analysis, a myopic loss ranking and a corresponding statistical procedure are developed and applied to investment-style data provided by BARRA. The paper qualifies the conditions under which value investing is more risky in North American financial markets.