Woods, 36, has always been good at recognizing and exploiting momentum.
Sector-rotation strategies appear to be just another way of exploiting momentum in the market.
In a recent study Joëlle Miffre and Georgios Rallis of the Cass Business School in London found 13 profitable momentum strategies in commodity markets with an average annual return of 9.4% between 1979 and 2004.Modern CTAs like Aspect and Winton (run by David Harding, another founder of AHL) devote a lot of effort to researching new ways of exploiting momentum.
"To exploit momentum, you need investors who understand the portfolio is going to be subject to a very high level of volatility," says Mr Marsh of the LBS.Momentum is so significant in stockmarkets that academics are starting to analyse what role it plays in professional fund managers' returns.
AQR has set up a series of funds that attempt to exploit the momentum anomaly.Too costly, too risky?Even the high priests of efficient-market theory have acknowledged the momentum effect.
After national interest in Ellington revived in 1956 because of a dramatic Newport Festival performance, he exploited the momentum, becoming a great record-maker again.
Sharon believed, they said, that he could exploit the momentum of the disengagement process in order to compel the Palestinians to engage in a gradual diplomatic process that did not end with a "final" agreement.
It can exploit the momentum of Mr Sharon's Gaza withdrawal by connecting this to a pre-existing peace plan, the international "road map" that is designed to lead to an independent Palestine at peace with the Jewish state.A chance, but not an easy oneThe road map has many virtues.
With an abnormal return of 21.02%, our double-sort strategy that exploits both momentum and term structure signals clearly outperforms the single-sort strategies.
Meanwhile, the Liberals decided it would be far too predictable to exploit the momentum of the boy wonder who thinks he understands quantum computing and instead decided to go the way of the buffalo, the slow-moving and almost extinguished animal that was unironically selected as the party's logo (the party scored a pathetic three seats).
The Obama administration wants to exploit the momentum of resolve and determination that the US President revived in the mind of the international community, as a serious and capable man, and it is now inevitable to be extremely calculating when dealing with him.
