{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,25]],"date-time":"2026-10-25T03:34:40Z","timestamp":1792899280383,"version":"4.5.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"group-title":"SSRN","reference-count":38,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,1]],"date-time":"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767225600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This paper examines whether factor crowding explains when volatility management improves factor investing. Using six U.S. equity factors\u2014MKT, HML, MOM, RMW, CMA, and BAB\u2014and VIX from 1990 to 2026, I construct a return-implied factor crowding index based on factor run-ups, return persistence, and VIX-related fragility. Standard volatility management improves average portfolio performance, but its gains are not concentrated uniformly in high-crowding states. Instead, crowding is most informative when combined with volatility and market stress. A crowding-conditioned volatility-management strategy improves the trade-off between return, volatility, skewness, and drawdown. In recursive out-of-sample tests, the strategy outperforms both unmanaged factors and standard volatility-managed factors, suggesting that volatility timing is most effective when it distinguishes ordinary volatility from crowded-position fragility.&lt;\/span&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.7656082","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T10:08:38Z","timestamp":1792750118000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Crowded Factors and Volatility Timing: When Risk Scaling Works&amp;nbsp;"],"prefix":"10.2139","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1426-6593","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Xuan","family":"Feng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"78","reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"34","DOI":"10.1007\/s11142-018-9470-2","article-title":"Quality minus junk","volume":"24","author":"C S 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