Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
Market Timing Strategy of Travel and Leisure Sector in Borsa
Istanbul
Alp Polat*, Tuba Sevil** and Guven Sevil***
Recent literature introduces that travel and leisure sector is found to be useful to implement a
timing strategy. This strategy involves tracing discount rate changes and investing. Changes
assume that buying travel and leisure stocks is beneficial due to expansive monetary
conditions. If discount rate changes become negative, the portfolio should be shifted to
government debt securities. The strategy is tested using Turkish market data. Values of the
sector index and government debt securities are employed in the analysis. The
announcements of Central Bank of Turkey determine expansive and restrictive monetary
periods. Treynor and Sharpe ratios are calculated in order to compare the strategy with
passive strategy benchmark. The results showed that market timing strategy is better
alternative to passive investment decisions in travel and leisure sector. Market timing
sustains higher portfolio performance measures. The study presents importance of monetary
decisions of the Central Bank and profitable strategy for investors.
JEL Codes: F45, G11 and G15
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* Dr. Alp Polat, Department of Business administration. Anadolu University, Turkey.
Email: alppolat@anadolu.edu.tr
**Dr. Tuba Sevil, Department of Sport Science. Anadolu University, Turkey. Email: tsevil@anadolu.edu.tr
*** Dr. Guven Sevil, Department of Accounting and Finance. Anadolu University, Turkey.
Email: gsevil@anadolu.edu.tr