Marshall D. Nickles, EdD, and Ray M. Valadez, EdD, professors of economics at the Graziadio School of Business and Management, discuss the findings from their paper, "Enhancing Returns in a Volatile Global Stock Market: A Time Limited Approach to Risk and Reward," which won the Best Paper in Finance Award at the 11th Annual Conference of the Global Business Development Institute in March 2009.

While "buy-and-hold" is an approach that many investment advisors promote, Nickles and Valadez believe that by investing only during certain months of the year (that is, the seasonality approach), risk exposure can be minimized while at the same time, returns may be enhanced