Fama and French Three Factor Model

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Fama and French Three Factor Model

Created by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French to describe the expected return of a portfolio. Their model includes the market exposure (known as beta in the Capital Asset Pricing Model) plus two other risk factors: SMB (Small Minus Big) and HML (High Minus Low.) SMB accounts for the tendency for stocks of firms with small market capitalizations generate higher returns, while HML accounts for the tendency that value stocks (of firms with high Book to Market ratios) generating higher returns.