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Implications of the Sharpe ratio as a performance measure in multi-period settings

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  • Cvitanic, Jaksa
  • Lazrak, Ali
  • Wang, Tan

Abstract

We study effects of using Sharpe ratio as a performance measure for compensating money managers in a dynamic market. We demonstrate that the manager's focus on the short horizon is detrimental to the long-horizon investor. When the returns are iid, the performance loss is significant, even when horizons are not very different. When the returns are mean reverting, the performance loss is exacerbated. We show that the manager's strategy tends to increase (decrease) the risk in the latter part of the optimization period after a bad (good) performance in the earlier part of the period, in agreement with empirical observations.

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  • Cvitanic, Jaksa & Lazrak, Ali & Wang, Tan, 2008. "Implications of the Sharpe ratio as a performance measure in multi-period settings," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1622-1649, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:5:p:1622-1649
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    Cited by:

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    3. Anthony Tay & Jacques Olivier, 2008. "Time-Varying Incentives in the Mutual Fund Industry," Working Papers 10-2008, Singapore Management University, School of Economics, revised Jun 2008.
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    6. Suleyman Basak & Georgy Chabakauri, 2010. "Dynamic Mean-Variance Asset Allocation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(8), pages 2970-3016, August.
    7. Ben-Zhang Yang & Xin-Jiang He & Song-Ping Zhu, 2020. "Continuous time mean-variance-utility portfolio problem and its equilibrium strategy," Papers 2005.06782, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2020.
    8. Francis In & Sangbae Kim, 2012. "An Introduction to Wavelet Theory in Finance:A Wavelet Multiscale Approach," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 8431, June.
    9. Ben-Zhang Yang & Xin-Jiang He & Song-Ping Zhu, 2020. "Mean-variance-utility portfolio selection with time and state dependent risk aversion," Papers 2007.06510, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    10. Anthony Tay, 2008. "Time-Varying Incentives in the Mutual Fund Industry," Finance Working Papers 22484, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    11. Lu, Jin-Ray & Li, Xiu-Yan, 2021. "Identifying the fair value of Sharpe ratio by an option valuation approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 63-70.

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