We study the optimal portfolio allocation problem from a Bayesian perspective using value at risk (VaR) and conditional value at risk (CVaR) as risk measures. By applying the posterior predictive distribution for the future portfolio return, we derive relevant quantiles needed in the computations of VaR and CVaR, and express the optimal portfolio weights in terms of observed data only. This is in contrast to the conventional method where the optimal solution is based on unobserved quantities which are estimated, leading to suboptimality. We also obtain the expressions for the weights of the global minimum VaR and CVaR portfolios, and specify conditions for their existence. It is shown that these portfolios may not exist if the confidence level used for the VaR or CVaR computation are too low. Moreover, analytical expressions for the mean-VaR and mean-CVaR efficient frontiers are presented and the extension of theoretical results to general coherent risk measures is provided. One of the main advantages of the suggested Bayesian approach is that the theoretical results are derived in the finite-sample case and thus they are exact and can be applied to large-dimensional portfolios.
By using simulation and real market data, we compare the new Bayesian approach to the conventional method by studying the performance and existence of the global minimum VaR portfolio and by analysing the estimated efficient frontiers. It is concluded that the Bayesian approach outperforms the conventional one, in particular at predicting the out-of-sample VaR.
Although maximizing median and quantiles is intuitively appealing and has an axiomatic foundation, it is difficult to study the optimal portfolio strategy due to the discontinuity and time inconsistency in the objective function. We use the intra-personal equilibrium approach to study the problem. Interestingly, we find that the only viable outcome is from the median maximization, because for other quantiles either the equilibrium does not exist or there is no investment in the risky assets. The median maximization strategy gives a simple explanation to why wealthier people invest more percent…
Many investment models in discrete or continuous-time settings boil down to maximizing an objective of the quantile function of the decision variable. This quantile optimization problem is known as the quantile formulation of the original investment problem. Under certain monotonicity assumptions, several schemes to solve such quantile optimization problems have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we propose a change-of-variable and relaxation method to solve the quantile optimization problems without using the calculus of variations or making any monotonicity assumptions. The meth…
It is well known that quantile regression model minimizes the portfolio extreme risk, whenever the attention is placed on the estimation of the response variable left quantiles. We show that, by considering the entire conditional distribution of the dependent variable, it is possible to optimize different risk and performance indicators. In particular, we introduce a risk-adjusted profitability measure, useful in evaluating financial portfolios under a pessimistic perspective, since the reward contribution is net of the most favorable outcomes. Moreover, as we consider large portfolios, we als…
Accurately estimating risk measures for financial portfolios is critical for both financial institutions and regulators. However, many existing models operate at the aggregate portfolio level and thus fail to capture the complex cross-dependencies between portfolio components. To address this, a new approach is presented that uses vine copulas in combination with univariate ARMA-GARCH models for marginal modelling to compute conditional portfolio-level risk measure estimates by simulating portfolio-level forecasts conditioned on a stress factor. A quantile-based approach is then presented to o…
The Black-Litterman model extends the framework of the Markowitz Modern Portfolio Theory to incorporate investor views. We consider a case where multiple view estimates, including uncertainties, are given for the same underlying subset of assets at a point in time. This motivates our consideration of data fusion techniques for combining information from multiple sources. In particular, we consider consistency-based methods that yield fused view and uncertainty pairs; such methods are not common to the quantitative finance literature. We show a relevant, modern case of incorporating machine lea…
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…
Managing a large-scale portfolio with many assets is one of the most challenging tasks in the field of finance. It is partly because estimation of either covariance or precision matrix of asset returns tends to be unstable or even infeasible when the number of assets $p$ exceeds the number of observations $n$. For this reason, most of the previous studies on portfolio management have focused on the case of$ p < n$. To deal with the case of $p > n$, we propose to use a new Bayesian framework based on adaptive graphical LASSO for estimating the precision matrix of asset returns in a large-scale …
This paper presents several models addressing optimal portfolio choice, optimal portfolio liquidation, and optimal portfolio transition issues, in which the expected returns of risky assets are unknown. Our approach is based on a coupling between Bayesian learning and dynamic programming techniques that leads to partial differential equations. It enables to recover the well-known results of Karatzas and Zhao in a framework à la Merton, but also to deal with cases where martingale methods are no longer available. In particular, we address optimal portfolio choice, portfolio liquidation, and por…
We study the Markowitz portfolio selection problem with unknown drift vector in the multidimensional framework. The prior belief on the uncertain expected rate of return is modeled by an arbitrary probability law, and a Bayesian approach from filtering theory is used to learn the posterior distribution about the drift given the observed market data of the assets. The Bayesian Markowitz problem is then embedded into an auxiliary standard control problem that we characterize by a dynamic programming method and prove the existence and uniqueness of a smooth solution to the related semi-linear par…
We propose a bootstrap-based robust high-confidence level upper bound (Robust H-CLUB) for assessing the risks of large portfolios. The proposed approach exploits rank-based and quantile-based estimators, and can be viewed as a robust extension of the H-CLUB method (Fan et al., 2015). Such an extension allows us to handle possibly misspecified models and heavy-tailed data. Under mixing conditions, we analyze the proposed approach and demonstrate its advantage over the H-CLUB. We further provide thorough numerical results to back up the developed theory. We also apply the proposed method to anal…
We propose a Bayesian non-parametric approach for modeling the distribution of multiple returns. In particular, we use an asymmetric dynamic conditional correlation (ADCC) model to estimate the time-varying correlations of financial returns where the individual volatilities are driven by GJR-GARCH models. The ADCC-GJR-GARCH model takes into consideration the asymmetries in individual assets' volatilities, as well as in the correlations. The errors are modeled using a Dirichlet location-scale mixture of multivariate Gaussian distributions allowing for a great flexibility in the return distribut…
Latent Variable Estimation in Bayesian Black-Litterman Models
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University（国家台湾大学物理系）；Department of Computer Science, Northwestern University（西北大学计算机科学系）；Center for Foundation Models and Generative AI, Northwestern University（西北大学基础模型与生成人工智能中心）；D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University（东北大学D’Amore-McKim商学院）；Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University（约翰霍普金斯大学Whiting工程学院）；Gamma Paradigm Capital（Gamma Paradigm资本）
