We derive the optimal portfolio choice for an investor who behaves according to Cumulative Prospect Theory. The study is done in a one-period economy with one risk-free asset and one risky asset, and the reference point corresponds to the terminal wealth arising when the entire initial wealth is invested into the risk-free asset. When it exists, the optimal holding is a function of a generalized Omega measure of the distribution of the excess return on the risky asset over the risk-free rate. It conceptually resembles Merton’s optimal holding for a CRRA expected-utility maximizer. We derive some properties of the optimal holding and illustrate our results using a simple example where the excess return has a skew-normal distribution. In particular, we show how a Cumulative Prospect Theory investor is highly sensitive to the skewness of the excess return on the risky asset. In the model we adopt, with a piecewise-power value function with different shape parameters, loss aversion might be violated for reasons that are now well-understood in the literature. Nevertheless, we argue that this violation is acceptable.
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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
15446.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
De Giorgi, Enrico & Hens, Thorsten, 2005.
"Making Prospect Theory Fit for Finance,"
Discussion Papers
2005/19, Department of Finance and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.
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