In yesterday's article, High Beta Still Lost This Decade, I noted for readers that despite an extended period of economic growth and strong stock returns, that more volatile stocks have still underperformed lower volatility stocks since the start of this decade. Certainly, low volatility stocks would be expected to outperform in a downturn, but the inability of high beta stocks to have higher absolute returns during a halcyon period of extended market gains suggests they are overall an inefficient structural market exposure.
In this article, I wanted to cover another defensive trade that has