Worst-case risk measures refer to the calculation of the largest value for risk measures when only partial information of the underlying distribution is available. For the popular risk measures such as Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), it is now known that their worst-case counterparts can be evaluated in closed form when only the first two moments are known for the underlying distribution. These results are remarkable since they not only simplify the use of worst-case risk measures but also provide great insight into the connection between the worst-case risk measures and existing risk measures. We show in this paper that somewhat surprisingly similar closed-form solutions also exist for the general class of law invariant coherent risk measures, which consists of spectral risk measures as special cases that are arguably the most important extensions of CVaR. We shed light on the one-to-one correspondence between a worst-case law invariant risk measure and a worst-case CVaR (and a worst-case VaR), which enables one to carry over the development of worst-case VaR in the context of portfolio optimization to the worst-case law invariant risk measures immediately.
In the paper portfolio optimization over long run risk sensitive criterion is considered. It is assumed that economic factors which stimulate asset prices are ergodic but non necessarily uniformly ergodic. Solution to suitable Bellman equation using local span contraction with weighted norms is shown. The form of optimal strategy is presented and examples of market models satisfying imposed assumptions are shown.
In this paper we consider a discrete-time risk sensitive portfolio optimization over a long time horizon with proportional transaction costs. We show that within the log-return i.i.d. framework the solution to a suitable Bellman equation exists under minimal assumptions and can be used to characterize the optimal strategies for both risk-averse and risk-seeking cases. Moreover, using numerical examples, we show how a Bellman equation analysis can be used to construct or refine optimal trading strategies in the presence of transaction costs.
Neural Networks for Portfolio-Level Risk Management: Portfolio Compression, Static Hedging, Counterparty Credit Risk Exposures and Impact on Capital Requirement
This paper studies a mean-risk portfolio choice problem for log-returns in a continuous-time, complete market. This is a growth-optimal problem with risk control. The risk of log-returns is measured by weighted Value-at-Risk (WVaR), which is a generalization of Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES). We characterize the optimal terminal wealth up to the concave envelope of a certain function, and obtain analytical expressions for the optimal wealth and portfolio policy when the risk is measured by VaR or ES. In addition, we find that the efficient frontier is a concave curve that conn…
High precision analytical approximation is proposed for variance-covariance based risk allocation in a portfolio of risky assets. A general case of a single-period multi-factor Merton-type model with stochastic recovery is considered. The accuracy of the approximation as well as its speed are compared to and shown to be superior to those of Monte Carlo simulation.
We provide analytical results for a static portfolio optimization problem with two coherent risk measures. The use of two risk measures is motivated by joint decision-making for portfolio selection where the risk perception of the portfolio manager is of primary concern, hence, it appears in the objective function, and the risk perception of an external authority needs to be taken into account as well, which appears in the form of a risk constraint. The problem covers the risk minimization problem with an expected return constraint and the expected return maximization problem with a risk const…
Analytical, free of time consuming Monte Carlo simulations, framework for credit portfolio systematic risk metrics calculations is presented. Techniques are described that allow calculation of portfolio-level systematic risk measures (standard deviation, VaR and Expected Shortfall) as well as allocation of risk down to individual transactions. The underlying model is the industry standard multi-factor Merton-type model with arbitrary valuation function at horizon (in contrast to the simplistic default-only case). High accuracy of the proposed analytical technique is demonstrated by benchmarkin…
Risk budgeting is a portfolio strategy where each asset contributes a prespecified amount to the aggregate risk of the portfolio. In this work, we propose an efficient numerical framework that uses only simulations of returns for estimating risk budgeting portfolios. Besides a general cutting planes algorithm for determining the weights of risk budgeting portfolios for arbitrary coherent distortion risk measures, we provide a specialised version for the Expected Shortfall, and a tailored Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) algorithm, also for the Expected Shortfall. We compare our algorithm to s…
The aim of this paper is to provide several examples of convex risk measures necessary for the application of the general framework for portfolio theory of Maier-Paape and Zhu, presented in Part I of this series (arXiv:1710.04579 [q-fin.PM]). As alternative to classical portfolio risk measures such as the standard deviation we in particular construct risk measures related to the current drawdown of the portfolio equity. Combined with the results of Part I (arXiv:1710.04579 [q-fin.PM]), this allows us to calculate efficient portfolios based on a drawdown risk measure constraint.
We study a static portfolio optimization problem with two risk measures: a principle risk measure in the objective function and a secondary risk measure whose value is controlled in the constraints. This problem is of interest when it is necessary to consider the risk preferences of two parties, such as a portfolio manager and a regulator, at the same time. A special case of this problem where the risk measures are assumed to be coherent (positively homogeneous) is studied recently in a joint work of the author. The present paper extends the analysis to a more general setting by assuming that …
The entropic value-at-risk (EVaR) is a new coherent risk measure, which is an upper bound for both the value-at-risk (VaR) and conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). As important properties, the EVaR is strongly monotone over its domain and strictly monotone over a broad sub-domain including all continuous distributions, while well-known monotone risk measures, such as VaR and CVaR lack these properties. A key feature for a risk measure, besides its financial properties, is its applicability in large-scale sample-based portfolio optimization. If the negative return of an investment portfolio is a d…
We develop the idea of using Monte Carlo sampling of random portfolios to solve portfolio investment problems. In this first paper we explore the need for more general optimization tools, and consider the means by which constrained random portfolios may be generated. A practical scheme for the long-only fully-invested problem is developed and tested for the classic QP application. The advantage of Monte Carlo methods is that they may be extended to risk functions that are more complicated functions of the return distribution, and that the underlying return distribution may be computed without …
We study the effects of non-systematic and systematic mortality risks on the required initial capital in a pension plan, in the presence of financial risks. We discover that for a pension plan with few members the impact of pooling on the required capital per person is strong, but non-systematic risk diminishes rapidly as the number of members increases. Systematic mortality risk, on the other hand, is a significant source of risk is a pension portfolio.
This paper proposes analytic forms of portfolio CoVaR and CoCVaR on the normal tempered stable market model. Since CoCVaR captures the relative risk of the portfolio with respect to a benchmark return, we apply it to the relative portfolio optimization. Moreover, we derive analytic forms for the marginal contribution to CoVaR and the marginal contribution to CoCVaR. We discuss the Monte-Carlo simulation method to calculate CoCVaR and the marginal contributions of CoVaR and CoCVaR. As the empirical illustration, we show relative portfolio optimization with thirty stocks under the distress condi…
Managing a portfolio to a risk model can tilt the portfolio toward weaknesses of the model. As a result, the optimized portfolio acquires downside exposure to uncertainty in the model itself, what we call "second order risk." We propose a risk measure that accounts for this bias. Studies of real portfolios, in asset-by-asset and factor model contexts, demonstrate that second order risk contributes significantly to realized volatility, and that the proposed measure accurately forecasts the out-of-sample behavior of optimized portfolios.
Numerical challenges inherent in algorithms for computing worst Value-at-Risk in homogeneous portfolios are identified and solutions as well as words of warning concerning their implementation are provided. Furthermore, both conceptual and computational improvements to the Rearrangement Algorithm for approximating worst Value-at-Risk for portfolios with arbitrary marginal loss distributions are given. In particular, a novel Adaptive Rearrangement Algorithm is introduced and investigated. These algorithms are implemented using the R package qrmtools.
This paper proposes a dynamic process of portfolio risk measurement to address potential information loss. The proposed model takes advantage of financial big data to incorporate out-of-target-portfolio information that may be missed when one considers the Value at Risk (VaR) measures only from certain assets of the portfolio. We investigate how the curse of dimensionality can be overcome in the use of financial big data and discuss where and when benefits occur from a large number of assets. In this regard, the proposed approach is the first to suggest the use of financial big data to improve…
This paper uses simulation-based portfolio optimization to mitigate the left tail risk of the portfolio. The contribution is twofold. (i) We propose the Markov regime-switching GARCH model with multivariate normal tempered stable innovation (MRS-MNTS-GARCH) to accommodate fat tails, volatility clustering and regime switch. The volatility of each asset independently follows the regime-switch GARCH model, while the correlation of joint innovation of the GARCH models follows the Hidden Markov Model. (ii) We use tail risk measures, namely conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) and conditional drawdown-a…
Using daily returns of the S&P 500 stocks from 2001 to 2011, we perform a backtesting study of the portfolio optimization strategy based on the extreme risk index (ERI). This method uses multivariate extreme value theory to minimize the probability of large portfolio losses. With more than 400 stocks to choose from, our study seems to be the first application of extreme value techniques in portfolio management on a large scale. The primary aim of our investigation is the potential of ERI in practice. The performance of this strategy is benchmarked against the minimum variance portfolio and the…
In this paper, we generalize the parametric Delta-VaR methods from portfolios with elliptic distributed risk factors to portfolios with mixture of elliptically distributed ones. We treat both the Expected Shortfall and the Value-at-Risk of such portfolios. Special attention is given to the particular case of the mixture of Student-t distributions.
We present a method for finding optimal hedging policies for arbitrary initial portfolios and market states. We develop a novel actor-critic algorithm for solving general risk-averse stochastic control problems and use it to learn hedging strategies across multiple risk aversion levels simultaneously. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach with a numerical example in a stochastic volatility environment.
Risk statistic is a critical factor not only for risk analysis but also for financial application. However, the traditional risk statistics may fail to describe the characteristics of regulator-based risk. In this paper, we consider the regulator-based risk statistics for portfolios. By further developing the properties related to regulator-based risk statistics, we are able to derive dual representation for such risk.
In this paper, we generalize the parametric delta-VaR method from portfolios with normally distributed risk factors to portfolios with elliptically distributed ones. We treat both the expected shortfall and the Value-at-Risk of such portfolios. Special attention is given to the particular case of a multivariate t-distribution.
The conventional wisdom of mean-variance (MV) portfolio theory asserts that the nature of the relationship between risk and diversification is a decreasing asymptotic function, with the asymptote approximating the level of portfolio systematic risk or undiversifiable risk. This literature assumes that investors hold an equally-weighted or a MV portfolio and quantify portfolio diversification using portfolio size. However, the equally-weighted portfolio and portfolio size are MV optimal if and only if asset returns distribution is exchangeable or investors have no useful information about asset…
We show how to reduce the problem of computing VaR and CVaR with Student T return distributions to evaluation of analytical functions of the moments. This allows an analysis of the risk properties of systems to be carefully attributed between choices of risk function (e.g. VaR vs CVaR); choice of return distribution (power law tail vs Gaussian) and choice of event frequency, for risk assessment. We exploit this to provide a simple method for portfolio optimization when the asset returns follow a standard multivariate T distribution. This may be used as a semi-analytical verification tool for m…
We present a general framework for portfolio risk management in discrete time, based on a replicating martingale. This martingale is learned from a finite sample in a supervised setting. The model learns the features necessary for an effective low-dimensional representation, overcoming the curse of dimensionality common to function approximation in high-dimensional spaces. We show results based on polynomial and neural network bases. Both offer superior results to naive Monte Carlo methods and other existing methods like least-squares Monte Carlo and replicating portfolios.
We derive simple return models for several classes of bond portfolios. With only one or two risk factors our models are able to explain most of the return variations in portfolios of fixed rate government bonds, inflation linked government bonds and investment grade corporate bonds. The underlying risk factors have natural interpretations which make the models well suited for risk management and portfolio design.
This article studies the impact of carbon risk on stock pricing. To address this, we consider the seminal approach of Görgen \textsl{et al.} (2019), who proposed estimating the carbon financial risk of equities by their carbon beta. To achieve this, the primary task is to develop a brown-minus-green (or BMG) risk factor, similar to Fama and French (1992). Secondly, we must estimate the carbon beta using a multi-factor model. While Görgen \textsl{et al.} (2019) considered that the carbon beta is constant, we propose a time-varying estimation model to assess the dynamics of the carbon risk. More…
We study the problem of portfolio insurance from the point of view of a fund manager, who guarantees to the investor that the portfolio value at maturity will be above a fixed threshold. If, at maturity, the portfolio value is below the guaranteed level, a third party will refund the investor up to the guarantee. In exchange for this protection, the third party imposes a limit on the risk exposure of the fund manager, in the form of a convex monetary risk measure. The fund manager therefore tries to maximize the investor's utility function subject to the risk measure constraint.We give a full …
The instability of historical risk factor correlations renders their use in estimating portfolio risk extremely questionable. In periods of market stress correlations of risk factors have a tendency to quickly go well beyond estimated values. For instance, in times of severe market stress, one would expect with certainty to see the correlation of yield levels and credit spreads go to -1, even though historical estimates will miss this region of correlation. This event might lead to realized portfolio risk profile substantially different from what was initially estimated. The purpose of this pa…
In the paper, we use and investigate copulas models to represent multivariate dependence in financial time series. We propose the algorithm of risk measure computation using copula models. Using the optimal mean-$CVaR$ portfolio we compute portfolio's Profit and Loss series and corresponded risk measures curves. Value-at-risk and Conditional-Value-at-risk curves were simulated by three copula models: full Gaussian, Student's $t$ and regular vine copula. These risk curves are lower than historical values of the risk measures curve. All three models have superior prediction ability than a usual …
We study investment and insurance demand decisions for an agent in a theoretical continuous-time expected utility maximization model that combines risky assets with an (exogenous) insurable background risk. This risk takes the form of a jump-diffusion process with negative jumps in the return rate of the (self-financed) wealth. The main distinctive feature of our model is that the agent's decision on portfolio choice and insurance demand causes nonlinear friction in the dynamics of the wealth process. We use the dynamic programming approach to find optimality conditions under which the agent a…
The downside risk of a portfolio of (equity)assets is generally substantially higher than the downside risk of its components. In particular in times of crises when assets tend to have high correlation, the understanding of this difference can be crucial in managing systemic risk of a portfolio. In this paper we generalize Merton's option formula in the presence jumps to the multi-asset case. It is shown how common jumps across assets provide an intuitive and powerful tool to describe systemic risk that is consistent with data. The methodology provides a new way to mark and risk-manage systemi…
In practice daily volatility of portfolio returns is transformed to longer holding periods by multiplying by the square-root of time which assumes that returns are not serially correlated. Under this assumption this procedure of scaling can also be applied to contributions to volatility of the assets in the portfolio. Close prices are often used to calculate the profit and loss of a portfolio. Trading at exchanges located in distant time zones this can lead to significant serial cross-correlations of the closing-time returns of the assets in the portfolio. These serial correlations cause the s…
Finance is one of the promising field for industrial application of quantum computing. In particular, quantum algorithms for calculation of risk measures such as the value at risk and the conditional value at risk of a credit portfolio have been proposed. In this paper, we focus on another problem in credit risk management, calculation of risk contributions, which quantify the concentration of the risk on subgroups in the portfolio. Based on the recent quantum algorithm for simultaneous estimation of multiple expected values, we propose the method for credit risk contribution calculation. We a…
Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) are popular risk measures from academic, industrial and regulatory perspectives. The problem of minimizing CVaR is theoretically known to be of Neyman-Pearson type binary solution. We add a constraint on expected return to investigate the Mean-CVaR portfolio selection problem in a dynamic setting: the investor is faced with a Markowitz type of risk reward problem at final horizon where variance as a measure of risk is replaced by CVaR. Based on the complete market assumption, we give an analytical solution in general. The novelty of our …
Risk contributions of portfolios form an indispensable part of risk adjusted performance measurement. The risk contribution of a portfolio, e.g., in the Euler or Aumann-Shapley framework, is given by the partial derivatives of a risk measure applied to the portfolio profit and loss in direction of the asset units. For risk measures that are not positively homogeneous of degree 1, however, known capital allocation principles do not apply. We study the class of lambda quantile risk measures that includes the well-known Value-at-Risk as a special case but for which no known allocation rule is app…
We use a replica approach to deal with portfolio optimization problems. A given risk measure is minimized using empirical estimates of asset values correlations. We study the phase transition which happens when the time series is too short with respect to the size of the portfolio. We also study the noise sensitivity of portfolio allocation when this transition is approached. We consider explicitely the cases where the absolute deviation and the conditional value-at-risk are chosen as a risk measure. We show how the replica method can study a wide range of risk measures, and deal with various …
Portfolio selection is the central task for assets management, but it turns out to be very challenging. Methods based on pattern matching, particularly the CORN-K algorithm, have achieved promising performance on several stock markets. A key shortage of the existing pattern matching methods, however, is that the risk is largely ignored when optimizing portfolios, which may lead to unreliable profits, particularly in volatile markets. We present a risk-aversion CORN-K algorithm, RACORN-K, that penalizes risk when searching for optimal portfolios. Experiments on four datasets (DJIA, MSCI, SP500(…
We discuss the use of saddlepoint methods in the analysis of portfolios, with particular reference to credit portfolios. The objective is to proceed from a model of the loss distribution, given through probabilities, correlations and the like, to an analytical approximation of the distribution. Once this is done we show how to derive the so-called risk contributions which are the derivatives of risk measures, such as a given quantile (VaR) or expected shortfall, to the allocations in the underlying assets. These show, informally, where the risk is coming from, and also indicate how to go about…
It is shown that the axioms for coherent risk measures imply that whenever there is an asset in a portfolio that dominates the others in a given sample (which happens with finite probability even for large samples), then this portfolio cannot be optimized under any coherent measure on that sample, and the risk measure diverges to minus infinity. This instability was first discovered on the special example of Expected Shortfall which is used here both as an illustration and as a prompt for generalization.
Financial markets are exposed to systemic risk, the risk that a substantial fraction of the system ceases to function and collapses. Systemic risk can propagate through different mechanisms and channels of contagion. One important form of financial contagion arises from indirect interconnections between financial institutions mediated by financial markets. This indirect interconnection occurs when financial institutions invest in common assets and is referred to as overlapping portfolios. In this work we quantify systemic risk from indirect interconnections between financial institutions. Havi…
We extend the Vasiček loan portfolio model to a setting where liabilities fluctuate randomly and asset values may be subject to systemic jump risk. We derive the probability distribution of the percentage loss of a uniform portfolio and analyze its properties. We find that the impact of liability risk is ambiguous and depends on the correlation between the continuous aggregate factor and the asset-liability ratio as well as on the default intensity. We also find that systemic jump risk has a significant impact on the upper percentiles of the loss distribution and, therefore, on both the VaR-me…
We consider the problem of simulating loss probabilities and conditional excesses for linear asset portfolios under the t-copula model. Although in the literature on market risk management there are papers proposing efficient variance reduction methods for Monte Carlo simulation of portfolio market risk, there is no paper discussing combining the randomized quasi-Monte Carlo method with variance reduction techniques. In this paper, we combine the randomized quasi-Monte Carlo method with importance sampling and stratified importance sampling. Numerical results for realistic portfolio examples s…
