CFA Society Toronto and Hillsdale Investment Management today announced the selection of the winning paper in the 2014 Canadian Investment Research Award competition.
The award winning paper — Bull and Bear Markets in Commodity Prices and Commodity Stocks: Is There a Relation? — was submitted by Christos Ntantamis, Department of Economics, Mount Allison University and Jun Zhou, Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University.
Ntantamis is currently an econometrician at TD Bank. Previously he was assistant professor at Mount Allison University and Aarhus University. He earned his PhD in Economics from McGill University.
Zhou is assistant professor offFinance at Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University. She earned her PhD in Finance from Rotman School of Management.
The research paper was selected by a panel of judges from among 11 submissions.
CFA Society Toronto and Toronto-based Hillsdale Investment Management will award a $10,000 cash prize to the winners on February 10, at CFA Society Toronto’s annual award reception.
“The motivation for the paper came after observing significant buzz in the main stream media that questioned the performance of commodity stocks in view of increasing commodity prices. When we checked the academic literature to find results on how prices of commodities such as oil and gold affect stock prices of firms engaged in their production, we found mixed results. We thought that instead of focusing on the direct relation between prices, we could investigate the relation between the bull and bear markets of commodity prices and commodity stocks,” said Ntantamis and Zhou.
“Using three complementary techniques, Christos Ntantamis and Jun Zhou have reached some excellent conclusions about the relationship of commodity prices to individual stocks. Their work confirms our own. Individual stocks remain more affected by company specific events, substitution, relative valuation and sensitivity to equity markets than to their underlying commodity prices.” said Chris Guthrie, president and CEO, Hillsdale Investment Management.