IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/tbsifw/if30v3.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Markowitz versus Michaud: Portfolio optimization strategies reconsidered

Author

Listed:
  • Becker, Franziska
  • Gürtler, Marc
  • Hibbeln, Martin

Abstract

Several attempts have been made to reduce the impact of estimation errors on the optimal portfolio composition. On the one hand, improved estimators of the necessary moments have been developed and on the other hand, heuristic methods have been generated to enhance the portfolio performance, for instance the resampled efficiency of Michaud (1998). We compare the out-ofsample performance of traditional Mean-Variance optimization by Markowitz (1952) with Michaud's resampled efficiency in a comprehensive simulation study for a large number of relevant estimators appearing in the literature. In this context we consider different estimation periods as well as unconstrained and constrained portfolio optimization problems. The main finding of our simu-lation study concerning the optimization approach is that Markowitz outperforms Michaud on average. Furthermore, the estimation strategy of Frost/Savarino (1988) proves to work excellent in all analyzed situations.

Suggested Citation

  • Becker, Franziska & Gürtler, Marc & Hibbeln, Martin, 2009. "Markowitz versus Michaud: Portfolio optimization strategies reconsidered," Working Papers IF30V3, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Finance.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:tbsifw:if30v3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/55254/1/684929953.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    2. Vijay K. Chopra & Chris R. Hensel & Andrew L. Turner, 1993. "Massaging Mean-Variance Inputs: Returns from Alternative Global Investment Strategies in the 1980s," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(7), pages 845-855, July.
    3. Bernd Scherer, 2006. "A note on the out-of-sample performance of resampled efficiency," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(3), pages 170-178, September.
    4. Frost, Peter A. & Savarino, James E., 1986. "An Empirical Bayes Approach to Efficient Portfolio Selection," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 293-305, September.
    5. Ledoit, Olivier & Wolf, Michael, 2003. "Improved estimation of the covariance matrix of stock returns with an application to portfolio selection," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 603-621, December.
    6. Yusif Simaan, 1997. "Estimation Risk in Portfolio Selection: The Mean Variance Model Versus the Mean Absolute Deviation Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(10), pages 1437-1446, October.
    7. Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal & Tan Wang, 2007. "Portfolio Selection with Parameter and Model Uncertainty: A Multi-Prior Approach," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(1), pages 41-81, January.
    8. Andrew L. Turner & Chris R. Hensel, 1993. "Were the Returns from Stocks and Bonds of Different Countries Really Different in the 1980s?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(7), pages 835-844, July.
    9. Jorion, Philippe, 1985. "International Portfolio Diversification with Estimation Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 259-278, July.
    10. Michael J. Best & Robert R. Grauer, 1991. "Sensitivity Analysis for Mean-Variance Portfolio Problems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(8), pages 980-989, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kolm, Petter N. & Tütüncü, Reha & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2014. "60 Years of portfolio optimization: Practical challenges and current trends," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 356-371.
    2. Meade, N. & Beasley, J.E. & Adcock, C.J., 2021. "Quantitative portfolio selection: Using density forecasting to find consistent portfolios," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(3), pages 1053-1067.
    3. James DiLellio, 2015. "A Kalman filter control technique in mean-variance portfolio management," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 39(2), pages 235-261, April.
    4. Frahm, Gabriel, 2010. "An analytical investigation of estimators for expected asset returns from the perspective of optimal asset allocation," Discussion Papers in Econometrics and Statistics 1/10, University of Cologne, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics.
    5. Candelon, B. & Hurlin, C. & Tokpavi, S., 2012. "Sampling error and double shrinkage estimation of minimum variance portfolios," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 511-527.
    6. Istvan Varga-Haszonits & Fabio Caccioli & Imre Kondor, 2016. "Replica approach to mean-variance portfolio optimization," Papers 1606.08679, arXiv.org.
    7. Thomas J. Brennan & Andrew W. Lo, 2010. "Impossible Frontiers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 905-923, June.
    8. Dangl, Thomas & Randl, Otto & Zechner, Josef, 2016. "Risk control in asset management: Motives and concepts," CFS Working Paper Series 546, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    9. Moorman, Theodore, 2014. "An empirical investigation of methods to reduce transaction costs," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 230-246.
    10. Kourtis, Apostolos & Dotsis, George & Markellos, Raphael N., 2012. "Parameter uncertainty in portfolio selection: Shrinking the inverse covariance matrix," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 2522-2531.
    11. Behr, Patrick & Guettler, Andre & Miebs, Felix, 2013. "On portfolio optimization: Imposing the right constraints," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1232-1242.
    12. Chiaki Hara & Toshiki Honda, 2014. "Asset Demand and Ambiguity Aversion," KIER Working Papers 911, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    13. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2011. "Do optimal diversification strategies outperform the 1/N strategy in U.K. stock returns?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 375-385.
    14. Kircher, Felix & Rösch, Daniel, 2021. "A shrinkage approach for Sharpe ratio optimal portfolios with estimation risks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    15. Frahm, Gabriel & Memmel, Christoph, 2010. "Dominating estimators for minimum-variance portfolios," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 159(2), pages 289-302, December.
    16. Varga-Haszonits, Istvan & Caccioli, Fabio & Kondor, Imre, 2016. "Replica approach to mean-variance portfolio optimization," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68955, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Francisco J. Nogales & Raman Uppal, 2009. "A Generalized Approach to Portfolio Optimization: Improving Performance by Constraining Portfolio Norms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(5), pages 798-812, May.
    18. DeMiguel, Victor & Martin-Utrera, Alberto & Nogales, Francisco J., 2013. "Size matters: Optimal calibration of shrinkage estimators for portfolio selection," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3018-3034.
    19. Detlef Seese & Christof Weinhardt & Frank Schlottmann (ed.), 2008. "Handbook on Information Technology in Finance," International Handbooks on Information Systems, Springer, number 978-3-540-49487-4, November.
    20. Mishra, Anil V., 2016. "Foreign bias in Australian-domiciled mutual fund holdings," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 101-123.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    portfolio selection; estimators of moments; simulation study; mean-variance optimization; resampled efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • C15 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Statistical Simulation Methods: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:tbsifw:if30v3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwtbsde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.