IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v79y2025ics1544612325005070.html

A benchmark-asset principal component factorization for index tracking on large investment universes

Author

Listed:
  • Cesarone, F.
  • Di Paolo, A.
  • Bufalo, M.
  • Orlando, G.

Abstract

This paper proposes an innovative methodology based on a benchmark-asset principal component factorization to determine a tracking portfolio that replicates the performance of a benchmark by investing in a subset of assets of a large investment universe. Our approach exploits the spectral decomposition of each benchmark-asset covariance matrix to formulate the tracking error, which is minimized by analyzing its eigenvalues. We present an in-depth comparison of several competing strategies on real-world data in terms of out-of-sample performance and computational efficiency. The empirical analysis highlights that our approach shows index tracking abilities similar to the optimization-based portfolio selection model but with lower turnover and faster running times of about four orders of magnitude. Furthermore, small replicating portfolios obtained by our method also provide investment performance comparable to the difficult-to-beat equally weighted portfolio.

Suggested Citation

  • Cesarone, F. & Di Paolo, A. & Bufalo, M. & Orlando, G., 2025. "A benchmark-asset principal component factorization for index tracking on large investment universes," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:79:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325005070
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.107244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325005070
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107244?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cesarone, Francesco & Puerto, Justo, 2025. "Flexible enhanced indexation models through stochastic dominance and ordered weighted average optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 323(2), pages 657-670.
    2. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    3. Renato Bruni & Francesco Cesarone & Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella, 2012. "A new stochastic dominance approach to enhanced index tracking problems," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(4), pages 3460-3470.
    4. Alexei Chekhlov & Stanislav Uryasev & Michael Zabarankin, 2005. "Drawdown Measure In Portfolio Optimization," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(01), pages 13-58.
    5. Zhang, Dayong & Hu, Min & Ji, Qiang, 2020. "Financial markets under the global pandemic of COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    6. Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella & Sandra Paterlini & Thiemo Krink, 2013. "Exact and heuristic approaches for the index tracking problem with UCITS constraints," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 205(1), pages 235-250, May.
    7. Beasley, J. E. & Meade, N. & Chang, T. -J., 2003. "An evolutionary heuristic for the index tracking problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(3), pages 621-643, August.
    8. Stefano Benati, 2015. "Using medians in portfolio optimization," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 66(5), pages 720-731, May.
    9. Francesco Cesarone & Raffaello Cesetti & Giuseppe Orlando & Manuel Luis Martino & Jacopo Maria Ricci, 2022. "Comparing SSD-Efficient Portfolios with a Skewed Reference Distribution," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Guastaroba, G. & Mansini, R. & Ogryczak, W. & Speranza, M.G., 2016. "Linear programming models based on Omega ratio for the Enhanced Index Tracking Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(3), pages 938-956.
    11. Guastaroba, G. & Speranza, M.G., 2012. "Kernel Search: An application to the index tracking problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 217(1), pages 54-68.
    12. Miguel Lobo & Maryam Fazel & Stephen Boyd, 2007. "Portfolio optimization with linear and fixed transaction costs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 341-365, July.
    13. Francesco Cesarone & Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella, 2013. "A new method for mean-variance portfolio optimization with cardinality constraints," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 205(1), pages 213-234, May.
    14. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    15. Bruni, Renato & Cesarone, Francesco & Scozzari, Andrea & Tardella, Fabio, 2017. "On exact and approximate stochastic dominance strategies for portfolio selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(1), pages 322-329.
    16. Bj�rn Fastrich & Sandra Paterlini & Peter Winker, 2014. "Cardinality versus q -norm constraints for index tracking," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(11), pages 2019-2032, November.
    17. Lianjie Shu & Fangquan Shi & Guoliang Tian, 2020. "High-dimensional index tracking based on the adaptive elastic net," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(9), pages 1513-1530, September.
    18. Francesco Cesarone & Manuel L. Martino & Fabio Tardella, 2023. "Mean-Variance-VaR portfolios: MIQP formulation and performance analysis," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 45(3), pages 1043-1069, September.
    19. Martens, Martin & Poon, Ser-Huang, 2001. "Returns synchronization and daily correlation dynamics between international stock markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(10), pages 1805-1827, October.
    20. Francesco Cesarone & Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella, 2015. "Linear vs. quadratic portfolio selection models with hard real-world constraints," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 345-370, July.
    21. Canakgoz, N.A. & Beasley, J.E., 2009. "Mixed-integer programming approaches for index tracking and enhanced indexation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(1), pages 384-399, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Chao & Zhou, Minna, 2025. "A novel utility-based approach for enhanced indexation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).

    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. Francesco Cesarone & Justo Puerto, 2024. "New approximate stochastic dominance approaches for Enhanced Indexation models," Papers 2401.12669, arXiv.org.
    2. Cesarone, Francesco & Puerto, Justo, 2025. "Flexible enhanced indexation models through stochastic dominance and ordered weighted average optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 323(2), pages 657-670.
    3. Francesco Cesarone & Raffaello Cesetti & Giuseppe Orlando & Manuel Luis Martino & Jacopo Maria Ricci, 2022. "Comparing SSD-Efficient Portfolios with a Skewed Reference Distribution," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Doering, Jana & Kizys, Renatas & Juan, Angel A. & Fitó, Àngels & Polat, Onur, 2019. "Metaheuristics for rich portfolio optimisation and risk management: Current state and future trends," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 6(C).
    5. Julio Cezar Soares Silva & Adiel Teixeira de Almeida Filho, 2023. "A systematic literature review on solution approaches for the index tracking problem in the last decade," Papers 2306.01660, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    6. Renato Bruni & Francesco Cesarone & Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella, 2013. "No arbitrage and a linear portfolio selection model," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(2), pages 1247-1258.
    7. Bruni, Renato & Cesarone, Francesco & Scozzari, Andrea & Tardella, Fabio, 2017. "On exact and approximate stochastic dominance strategies for portfolio selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(1), pages 322-329.
    8. Francesco Cesarone & Rosella Giacometti & Manuel Luis Martino & Fabio Tardella, 2023. "A return-diversification approach to portfolio selection," Papers 2312.09707, arXiv.org.
    9. Francesco Cesarone & Rosella Giacometti & Manuel L. Martino & Fabio Tardella, 2025. "A return-diversification approach to portfolio selection," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 1-31, December.
    10. Li, Xuepeng & Xu, Fengmin & Jing, Kui, 2022. "Robust enhanced indexation with ESG: An empirical study in the Chinese Stock Market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Juan Francisco Monge, 2017. "Cardinality constrained portfolio selection via factor models," Papers 1708.02424, arXiv.org.
    12. Gianfranco Guastaroba & Renata Mansini & Wlodzimierz Ogryczak & M. Grazia Speranza, 2020. "Enhanced index tracking with CVaR-based ratio measures," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 292(2), pages 883-931, September.
    13. Anubha Goel & Damir Filipovi'c & Puneet Pasricha, 2024. "Sparse Portfolio Selection via Topological Data Analysis based Clustering," Papers 2401.16920, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    14. Seyoung Park & Eun Ryung Lee & Sungchul Lee & Geonwoo Kim, 2019. "Dantzig Type Optimization Method with Applications to Portfolio Selection," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-32, June.
    15. Kouaissah, Noureddine, 2021. "Using multivariate stochastic dominance to enhance portfolio selection and warn of financial crises," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 480-493.
    16. Leonardo Riegel Sant’Anna & Tiago Pascoal Filomena & Pablo Cristini Guedes & Denis Borenstein, 2017. "Index tracking with controlled number of assets using a hybrid heuristic combining genetic algorithm and non-linear programming," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 258(2), pages 849-867, November.
    17. Francesco Cesarone & Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella, 2020. "An optimization–diversification approach to portfolio selection," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 76(2), pages 245-265, February.
    18. Strub, O. & Baumann, P., 2018. "Optimal construction and rebalancing of index-tracking portfolios," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 370-387.
    19. Andrea Scozzari & Fabio Tardella & Sandra Paterlini & Thiemo Krink, 2013. "Exact and heuristic approaches for the index tracking problem with UCITS constraints," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 205(1), pages 235-250, May.
    20. Francesco Cesarone & Manuel Luis Martino & Federica Ricca & Andrea Scozzari, 2023. "Managing ESG Ratings Disagreement in Sustainable Portfolio Selection," Papers 2312.10739, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:finlet:v:79:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325005070. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.