IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v54y2008i7p1364-1380.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Distribution of the Sample Minimum-Variance Frontier

Author

Listed:
  • Raymond Kan

    (Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E6, Canada)

  • Daniel R. Smith

    (Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada)

Abstract

In this paper, we present a finite sample analysis of the sample minimum-variance frontier under the assumption that the returns are independent and multivariate normally distributed. We show that the sample minimum-variance frontier is a highly biased estimator of the population frontier, and we propose an improved estimator of the population frontier. In addition, we provide the exact distribution of the out-of-sample mean and variance of sample minimum-variance portfolios. This allows us to understand the impact of estimation error on the performance of in-sample optimal portfolios.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymond Kan & Daniel R. Smith, 2008. "The Distribution of the Sample Minimum-Variance Frontier," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(7), pages 1364-1380, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:54:y:2008:i:7:p:1364-1380
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1070.0852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0852
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0852?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1997. "Assessing Specification Errors in Stochastic Discount Factor Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 557-590, June.
    2. William F. Sharpe, 1963. "A Simplified Model for Portfolio Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 277-293, January.
    3. Frankfurter, George M. & Phillips, Herbert E. & Seagle, John P., 1971. "Portfolio Selection: The Effects of Uncertain Means, Variances, and Covariances," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(5), pages 1251-1262, December.
    4. Ravi Jagannathan & Tongshu Ma, 2003. "Risk Reduction in Large Portfolios: Why Imposing the Wrong Constraints Helps," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1651-1683, August.
    5. Barry, Christopher B, 1974. "Portfolio Analysis under Uncertain Means, Variances, and Covariances," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 515-522, May.
    6. Kan, Raymond & Zhou, Guofu, 2007. "Optimal Portfolio Choice with Parameter Uncertainty," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 621-656, September.
    7. Dickinson, J. P., 1974. "The Reliability of Estimation Procedures in Portfolio Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(3), pages 447-462, June.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Jorion, Philippe, 1985. "International Portfolio Diversification with Estimation Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 259-278, July.
    11. Jorion, Philippe, 1986. "Bayes-Stein Estimation for Portfolio Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 279-292, September.
    12. Okhrin, Yarema & Schmid, Wolfgang, 2006. "Distributional properties of portfolio weights," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 235-256, September.
    13. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    14. Mark Britten‐Jones, 1999. "The Sampling Error in Estimates of Mean‐Variance Efficient Portfolio Weights," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 655-671, April.
    15. Cadsby, Charles Bram, 1986. "Performance Hypothesis Testing with the Sharpe and Treynor Measures: A Comment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(5), pages 1175-1176, December.
    16. Ravi Jagannathan & Tongshu Ma, 2003. "Risk Reduction in Large Portfolios: Why Imposing the Wrong Constraints Helps," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1651-1684, August.
    17. Merton, Robert C., 1972. "An Analytic Derivation of the Efficient Portfolio Frontier," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(4), pages 1851-1872, September.
    18. Miller, Robert E. & Gehr, Adam K., 1978. "Sample Size Bias and Sharpe's Performance Measure: A Note," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(5), pages 943-946, December.
    19. Jobson, J D & Korkie, Bob M, 1981. "Performance Hypothesis Testing with the Sharpe and Treynor Measures," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(4), pages 889-908, September.
    20. Andrew F. Siegel & Artemiza Woodgate, 2007. "Performance of Portfolios Optimized with Estimation Error," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 1005-1015, June.
    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. Istvan Varga-Haszonits & Fabio Caccioli & Imre Kondor, 2016. "Replica approach to mean-variance portfolio optimization," Papers 1606.08679, arXiv.org.
    2. Yan, Cheng & Zhang, Huazhu, 2017. "Mean-variance versus naïve diversification: The role of mispricing," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 61-81.
    3. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Han, Qiheng & Wu, Wensheng & Cao, Zhiguang, 2018. "Asset allocation strategies, data snooping, and the 1 / N rule," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 257-269.
    4. 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.
    5. Ruili Sun & Tiefeng Ma & Shuangzhe Liu & Milind Sathye, 2019. "Improved Covariance Matrix Estimation for Portfolio Risk Measurement: A Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-34, March.
    6. Behr, Patrick & Guettler, Andre & Truebenbach, Fabian, 2012. "Using industry momentum to improve portfolio performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1414-1423.
    7. 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.
    8. Schanbacher Peter, 2015. "Averaging Across Asset Allocation Models," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 235(1), pages 61-81, February.
    9. Frahm, Gabriel & Memmel, Christoph, 2008. "Dominating estimators for the global minimum variance portfolio," Discussion Papers in Econometrics and Statistics 2/08, University of Cologne, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics.
    10. Penaranda, Francisco, 2007. "Portfolio choice beyond the traditional approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24481, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. 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.
    12. Johannes Bock, 2018. "An updated review of (sub-)optimal diversification models," Papers 1811.08255, arXiv.org.
    13. Chavez-Bedoya, Luis & Rosales, Francisco, 2022. "Orthogonal portfolios to assess estimation risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 906-937.
    14. 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.
    15. Bedi, Prateek & Nashier, Tripti, 2020. "On the investment credentials of Bitcoin: A cross-currency perspective," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. Mishra, Anil V., 2016. "Foreign bias in Australian-domiciled mutual fund holdings," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 101-123.
    17. Wang, Christina Dan & Chen, Zhao & Lian, Yimin & Chen, Min, 2022. "Asset selection based on high frequency Sharpe ratio," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 168-188.
    18. Jonathan Fletcher, 2009. "Risk Reduction and Mean‐Variance Analysis: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(7‐8), pages 951-971, September.
    19. Gabriel Frahm & Tobias Wickern & Christof Wiechers, 2012. "Multiple tests for the performance of different investment strategies," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 96(3), pages 343-383, July.
    20. Taras Bodnar & Holger Dette & Nestor Parolya & Erik Thors'en, 2019. "Sampling Distributions of Optimal Portfolio Weights and Characteristics in Low and Large Dimensions," Papers 1908.04243, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:54:y:2008:i:7:p:1364-1380. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.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.