Is there momentum in factor premia? Evidence from international equity markets

This study examines the momentum effect in the returns of factor premia representing a broad set of stock market strategies. Using cross-sectional and time-series tests, we investigate the performance persistence of market, value, size, momentum, low-risk, and quality premia within a sample of 24 international equity markets for the years 1990-2016. We provide strong evidence that the top performing factors continue to outperform the worst performing factors both in individual equity markets and in the cross-country framework. The momentum in factor premia is largely explained by the classic stock-level momentum effect.