The Interaction of Short-Term Reversal and Momentum Strategies

This article investigates the interaction between short-term reversal and momentum strategies. The authors find that the magnitude of price reversals of short-term winners and losers is significantly related to past medium-term performance. Both past medium-term winners and losers with the best short-term performance experience the strongest price continuation. Short-term reversal strategies perform best in the momentum-loser quintile, and momentum strategies perform best in the short-term-winner quintile. The authors' results imply that investors could achieve higher momentum profits by also considering short-term performance and vice versa. The results also suggest that investors adhere to prior dominant beliefs in the face of new contradictory information. Short squeezes and fire sales (self-attribution bias) may explain the continued underperformance (outperformance) of momentum losers (winners) with good short-term performance.