PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Kenneth J. Martin AU - Harikumar Sankaran TI - Using the Black–Litterman Model: <em>A View on Opinions</em> AID - 10.3905/joi.2019.1.075 DP - 2019 Jan 31 TA - The Journal of Investing PG - 112--122 VI - 28 IP - 1 4099 - https://pm-research.com/content/28/1/112.short 4100 - https://pm-research.com/content/28/1/112.full AB - We provide evidence on using the Black–Litterman (1991, 1992) asset allocation model and show that if investors form even partially correct opinions on small-cap and emerging market stocks, portfolio performance would have improved vis-à-vis no opinions. For the period 20006–2011, we show that the Black–Litterman expected returns for large-cap US stocks, the EAFE index, and the Bloomberg Barclays US aggregate bond index are highly correlated with future five-year returns in each of those assets. Expected returns on US small-cap and emerging market stocks have a low correlation with future returns. If an opinion was only partially correct on the latter assets, the resulting portfolios would have outperformed a market-cap-weighted benchmark portfolio. Thus, we conclude that investors may benefit more from investing resources in forming opinions on the future direction of small-cap and emerging market stocks relative to large-cap stocks.TOPICS: Factor-based models, analysis of individual factors/risk premia