Cross-momentum strategies in the equity futures and currency markets

Abstract

This study focuses on two of the most liquid assets—currencies and international equity futures indices—and investigates whether cross-momentum enhances momentum portfolios. We uncover that a combination of equity futures and currency portfolios sorted by cross-momentum outperforms a combination of those sorted by normal-momentum. The change in the Sharpe ratio is 0.32 and the economic gain based on the performance fee measure differs by 4.11% per annum. Moreover, we observe that the cross-momentum strategy is more strongly associated with commodity exporting countries. This stems from the positive relationship between equity futures and macroeconomic conditions for commodity exporting countries.