The science of statistics tells us that positive correlations range from 0.0 to 1.0.
The increased uncertainty has also created high correlations given the more prevalent herd mentality.
But the correlations can be striking, and in professional sports they often seem abundant.
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If historical correlations are low enough, we separate two indexes into different asset classes.
Mr Persaud points to another source of folly: chasing cross-country correlations in equity markets.
If they have nothing do to with each other, they will have correlations of zero.
If metropolitan areas moved in lock-step with each other, they would have correlations of one.
Take percentage changes in the index, and then find the correlations across metropolitan areas.
As a consequence, trans-border correlations, which would have benefited from regional treatment, were difficult to establish.
Such observations yield a wealth of correlations, but it is much harder to pin down causation.
Half of the 24 industry groups studied have at least three metric categories with strong correlations.
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This noted that, among nine big economies, stockmarket correlations have averaged around 0.5 since the 1960s.
The tediously close correlations between currencies, and with other asset classes, are now waning.
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They then calculated the correlations between Germany's output gap and the rest (see chart).
Moreover, in banks different teams often track different risks, masking potentially catastrophic correlations between them.
Or that there were correlations between wealth and birth signs in the Chinese zodiac.
There is other evidence that correlations between particular markets are not particularly stable over time.
For future returns, correlations over the next 21 and 63 trading days were -0.06 and -0.06, respectively.
Big data may be great at teasing out correlations but it has little to say about causation.
However, unless the correlations of the various asset classes are predictable, the mitigation of risk is lost.
The correlations that most affect pay are those featuring numbers of home runs (0.62) and total runs driven in (0.66).
Not surprisingly, however, many investors and executives view correlations between higher returns and socially responsible imperatives with skepticism.
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This number is eerily close to the two million barrels per day noted above in the historic correlations.
Audit Integrity has back-tested its proprietary metrics to 1996 to establish correlations between corporate behavior and negative events.
Stocks also have had higher-than-normal correlations with each other and fewer stocks have beaten the index, she says.
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They were searching for correlations between social rank and gene activity, and in 987 genes they found one.
However damaging these generalizations can be, Yecies does find that certain correlations hold true based on where people work.
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Bonds also have low long-term correlations with stocks, making them a good diversifier.
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The big reason for the volatility and consequent high correlations are macro factors.
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First, correlations are not static, and second, low correlation itself does not guarantee a portfolio benefit in the short-term.
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