The momentum effect on selected stock indices of Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The article makes an assessment of profitability the momentum strategy. It is about buying securities which has recently gained the most in value or taking a short position on the most-losing instruments. The stock exchange indices of selected Central and Eastern European countries were examined: Sofix Index (Bulgaria), PX Index (Czech Republic), OMX Tallinn Index (Estonia), OMX Riga Index (Latvia), BET Index (Romania), SAX Index (Slovakia), UX Index (Ukraine), BUX Index (Hungary) and WIG20 (Poland). The analysis was conducted in two periods: 10.01.2003–26.10.2007 and 9.01.2009–26.01.2018. Profitability of the strategy varied in both periods, definitely better results could be achieved in the second period. Then, almost everywhere, the rates of return resulting from the use of the momentum strategy turned out to be higher than the average rate of return when considering the same period of maintaining the long position (only long positions were simulated). For example: on the BET index (Romania), in the second subperiod, taking positions after extreme weekly increases and maintaining the position for 9 weeks, investor could generate an average rate of return higher by over 10 percentage points from the average nine-week rate of return during the considered period.