An easy way to lower the risk profile of your stock portfolioThe correlation between Visa and Mastercard creates an interesting investment trick.
I began this analysis not even looking for the correlation between these two companies' stock prices. But rather I was looking for some chart patterns using a stock screener. At the top of the list, these two companies emerged. As usual, I was going to go through the stock charts of all the companies in the list briefly to determine if they hold any chart pattern merit.
However, as I scanned over Visa, and then Mastercard, I noticed they looked extremely similar. Weird. I then opened up Tradingview and put these stocks in. Side by side they look the same.
These two companies have very similar price movements. No surprise, they are very similar companies. They are direct competitors. They are both big players in the global credit services market. Transacting trillions of dollars in total payments volumes per year. They’re both tech companies that connect the consumer and the merchant digitally for transactions. They have been seen as rivals for over a decade now. Neither Visa nor Mastercard are involved in extending credit or issuing cards. They work in a co-branded relationship with the card provider. That's why you will see their logos on your credit card but won’t see a full absolute Mastercard/Visa credit card.
Visa is generally larger in terms of the transaction, purchase volume and cards in circulation. However, Mastercard growth has been picking up and may see a catch-up.
Now let’s get back to the price movement analysis. I have split this up into three time periods and then done a Pearson Correlation Test. The first period is the matched IPO date to the current date. The next is the last 5 years and then the last 2 years.
The reason for the three time periods is simple. I want to do a full IPO to current date analysis to get the full picture and long-term perspective. A 5-year analysis because if you look at the charts above, that’s when the volatility in the stocks picks up. The last 2 years, because if you look again at the charts above, some crazy price movements have been occurring in the last two years that do not follow the past 14-year trend.
The closer to +1, the closer the correlation.
March 2008 - Nov 2022: 0.83
Nov 2017 - Nov 2022: 0.92
Nov 2020 - Nov 2022: 0.90
As you can see from the above stats both of these stocks have a close relationship with each other. A higher correlation in recent years. Of course, correlation doesn’t mean causation. However, the fact that these two companies are very similar and direct competitors means that one could form a reasonable conclusion. Not that one stock is affecting the other price. But rather than investors see these two companies as very similar. Such that when they exit one, they exit the other. Unless there is a big reason not to. But as you can see from the stats above. The stocks have a close correlation over the last 14 years such that even if one says that, let, for example, Visa is going to grow faster than Mastercard, the chances are - Mastercard wouldn’t be far behind.
Henceforth, this leads to an interesting investment tip:
Let’s say you want to diversify your portfolio by gaining some exposure to the credit services industry. Since Visa and Mastercard are the two leading companies, you chose them. However, you only have enough money to invest in one. But you also want to lower the risk profile of your portfolio. Is there a way both can be done?
The answer is yes, since Visa and Mastercard have such a close correlation and are very big established companies they will most likely follow each other in price movement. Also, since they are two different companies, you will be diversifying your investment and will be lowering your risk. So, you divide that last portion of your portfolio into two smaller portions and buy Visa and Mastercard 50:50. This will mean you get the exposure you are after, the returns as well since they have a close correlation, and the risk is lowered since they are two separate companies. Quite a cool trick is not it?
I created three different portfolios. Each beginning with $10,000. I invested the full out in two of them into Visa and Mastercard. The last portfolio had a 50:50 split. I then calculated the standard daily deviation and the annualized standard deviation. Here are the results:
Visa 100%:
Start value: $10,000
End value: $137,295.57
Annualized STD: 29.60%
Mastercard 100%:
Start value: $10,000
End value: $151,466.00
Annualized STD: 32.30%
Visa 50% Mastercard 50%:
Start value: $10,000
End value: $144,380.79
Annualized STD: 29.50%
As you can see from the above stats, once the two stocks have been combined the standard deviation drops by 8.67% and the standard deviation is lower than the two stocks individually. This means the risk is lower. However, yes, the final value isn’t as high as the Mastercard 100% the returns are higher than the sole Visa 100% portfolio by 5.10%. So, in other words, the risk has been lowered than if you had individual portfolios and the returns are higher as well. Of course, the returns aren’t as high as they are in the Mastercard 100% portfolio, but the risk is lower while still ensuring higher returns. This means the Visa 50% Mastercard 50% portfolio provides an effective way to reduce risk while increasing returns.
However, one thing to note is the maximum drawdown was the lowest in the Mastercard 100% portfolio. The second lowest is Visa 50% Mastercard 50%. Highest in Visa 50%. So, ensure that if you are going to follow this strategy, there is more research to be done and it is best worked in a long-term investment strategy possibly combined with dollar cost averaging.
To conclude, if you want to see a higher return while lowering the risk profile of your portfolio. It pays to diversify with similar correlating assets.
