Equity Premium Prediction: Taking into Account the Role of Long, even Asymmetric, Swings in Stock Market Behavior

Through a novel approach, this paper shows that substantial change in stock market behavior has a statistically and economically significant impact on equity risk premium predictability both on in-sample and out-of-sample cases. In line with Auer's ''Bullish ratio'', a ''Bullish index'' is introduced to measure the changes in stock market behavior, which we describe through a ''fluctuation detrending moving average analysis'' (FDMAA) for returns. We consider 28 indicators. We find that a ''positive shock'' of the Bullish Index is closely related to strong equity risk premium predictability for forecasts based on macroeconomic variables for up to six months. In contrast, a ''negative shock'' is associated with strong equity risk premium predictability with adequate forecasts for up to nine months when based on technical indicators.