TY - JOUR T1 - Diversifying Diversification: Downside Risk Management with Portfolios of Insurance Securities JF - The Journal of Portfolio Management DO - 10.3905/jpm.2021.1.229 SP - jpm.2021.1.229 AU - Vineer Bhansali AU - Jeremie Holdom Y1 - 2021/03/04 UR - https://pm-research.com/content/early/2021/03/04/jpm.2021.1.229.abstract N2 - Investors are always in search of diversifying securities and strategies to assist in downside risk management. The authors consider six popular diversifying securities: gold, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, bond futures, S&P 500 80% strike put options, and trend-following strategies. Using 50 years of data, the authors demonstrate that a portfolio approach to diversification strategies results in more robust outcomes when combined with a portfolio that has large equity exposure. Although each of the individual securities can be more or less beneficial in specific periods and environments, the authors conclude that a simple portfolio approach to diversification, whether optimized or not, allows investors to robustly manage risk while not being overly concentrated.TOPICS: Portfolio construction, risk management, security analysis and valuation, currency, optionsKey Findings▪ Many securities and strategies, such as gold, yen, Swiss franc, bond futures, S&P 500 Index put options, and trend following, have all been used for downside risk mitigation.▪ Over 50 years of history, each of these strategies assists in mitigating risk and improving the performance of a portfolio with S&P 500 exposure.▪ However, by diversifying diversification (i.e., by combining these strategies), we demonstrate that more robust portfolio outcomes can be realized without the possibility of hindsight bias or over-reliance on one risk mitigation strategy. ER -