Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the choice of investment strategies and investors’ behavior on the Warsaw Stock Exchange – 2017-2020 research findings

Purpose: This paper attempts to reveal the potential differences between the portfolios of dividend-paying companies with growth or value potential and the same portfolios fortified with the financial instruments replicating precious metals or real estate price behavior in a turbulent global economy. Design/methodology/approach: The research objective of this paper is accomplished by means of a thorough literature analysis. Moreover, the authors employ comparative analysis methods to explore the features of stock portfolios held by dividend-paying companies with value or growth potential and portfolios of the companies that are fortified with financial instruments replicating the price behavior of precious metals or real estate and uncover the similarities and differences. Research of the characteristics of financial instrument portfolio variants and comparison between them is conducted by means of standard deviation of the rate of return, coefficient of variation, the Pearson correlation coefficient and the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. It was also assessed whether the estimated correlation coefficients were statistically significant through the use of a non-parametric correlation coefficient significance test. Findings: The results of the empirical analyses conducted here reveal that the average annual return of portfolios held by dividend-paying companies with value and growth potential is lower than ETFs replicating precious metals. Furthermore, during the turbulent economy of 2020, the inclusion of precious metal assets boosted the rates of return of the Polish dividend-paying companies portfolios. Research limitations/implications: The research was carried out on a limited number of the analyzed companies. Therefore, it could be biased, due to the deterministic stock sampling method. Practical implications: Knowledge of the similarities and differences between dividend- paying companies with value or growth potential and the risk diversification of such companies’ stock portfolios by means of instruments replicating the price behavior of precious metals or real estate is of great importance to both the investors and investment funds' boards. Consequently, one can make better investment decisions. Social implications: Among the paper's social implications, the most important appears to be a possible change in the investors' attitude towards dividend-paying companies with value potential and financial instruments replicating the price behavior of precious metals or real estate. Ultimately, investors’ needs could be better addressed. Originality/value: What is new in the paper is the stock comparison of dividend-paying companies' with value and growth potential with precious metals and real estate-based instruments. The paper also attempts to compare efficiency of investing in the portfolio variants, capturing the effect of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, thereby filling our knowledge gap. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, precious metals, ETFs, Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Category of the paper: Research paper.