IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1505.04045.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Portfolio optimization for heavy-tailed assets: Extreme Risk Index vs. Markowitz

Author

Listed:
  • Georg Mainik
  • Georgi Mitov
  • Ludger Ruschendorf

Abstract

Using daily returns of the S&P 500 stocks from 2001 to 2011, we perform a backtesting study of the portfolio optimization strategy based on the extreme risk index (ERI). This method uses multivariate extreme value theory to minimize the probability of large portfolio losses. With more than 400 stocks to choose from, our study seems to be the first application of extreme value techniques in portfolio management on a large scale. The primary aim of our investigation is the potential of ERI in practice. The performance of this strategy is benchmarked against the minimum variance portfolio and the equally weighted portfolio. These fundamental strategies are important benchmarks for large-scale applications. Our comparison includes annualized portfolio returns, maximal drawdowns, transaction costs, portfolio concentration, and asset diversity in the portfolio. In addition to that we study the impact of an alternative tail index estimator. Our results show that the ERI strategy significantly outperforms both the minimum-variance portfolio and the equally weighted portfolio on assets with heavy tails.

Suggested Citation

  • Georg Mainik & Georgi Mitov & Ludger Ruschendorf, 2015. "Portfolio optimization for heavy-tailed assets: Extreme Risk Index vs. Markowitz," Papers 1505.04045, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1505.04045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.04045
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jorion, Philippe, 1985. "International Portfolio Diversification with Estimation Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 259-278, July.
    2. Toker Doganoglu & Christoph Hartz & Stefan Mittnik, 2007. "Portfolio optimization when risk factors are conditionally varying and heavy tailed," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 333-354, May.
    3. 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.
    4. Danielsson, J. & de Haan, L. & Peng, L. & de Vries, C. G., 2001. "Using a Bootstrap Method to Choose the Sample Fraction in Tail Index Estimation," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 226-248, February.
    5. 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.
    6. Jorion, Philippe, 1991. "Bayesian and CAPM estimators of the means: Implications for portfolio selection," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 717-727, June.
    7. Georg Mainik & Ludger Rüschendorf, 2010. "On optimal portfolio diversification with respect to extreme risks," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 593-623, December.
    8. Chollete, Lorán & de la Peña, Victor & Lu, Ching-Chih, 2012. "International diversification: An extreme value approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 871-885.
    9. Hyung, Namwon & de Vries, Casper G., 2007. "Portfolio selection with heavy tails," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 383-400, June.
    10. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, March.
    11. Grauer, Robert R. & Hakansson, Nils H., 1995. "Stein and CAPM estimators of the means in asset allocation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 35-66.
    12. 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.
    13. DiTraglia, Francis J. & Gerlach, Jeffrey R., 2013. "Portfolio selection: An extreme value approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 305-323.
    14. Wenbo Hu & Alec Kercheval, 2010. "Portfolio optimization for student t and skewed t returns," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 91-105.
    15. 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.
    16. Laurent El Ghaoui & Maksim Oks & Francois Oustry, 2003. "Worst-Case Value-At-Risk and Robust Portfolio Optimization: A Conic Programming Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 543-556, August.
    17. Martin R. Young, 1998. "A Minimax Portfolio Selection Rule with Linear Programming Solution," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 673-683, May.
    18. Drees, Holger & Kaufmann, Edgar, 1998. "Selecting the optimal sample fraction in univariate extreme value estimation," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 149-172, July.
    19. Zhou, Chen, 2010. "Dependence structure of risk factors and diversification effects," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 531-540, June.
    20. Desmoulins-Lebeault, François & Kharoubi-Rakotomalala, Cécile, 2012. "Non-Gaussian diversification: When size matters," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1987-1996.
    21. 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.
    22. R.H. Tütüncü & M. Koenig, 2004. "Robust Asset Allocation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 157-187, November.
    23. Mainik, Georg & Embrechts, Paul, 2013. "Diversification in heavy-tailed portfolios: properties and pitfalls," Annals of Actuarial Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 26-45, March.
    24. D. Goldfarb & G. Iyengar, 2003. "Robust Portfolio Selection Problems," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 1-38, February.
    25. Robert Jarrow & Feng Zhao, 2006. "Downside Loss Aversion and Portfolio Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 558-566, April.
    26. 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.
    27. Ortobelli, Sergio & Rachev, Svetlozar T. & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2010. "Risk management and dynamic portfolio selection with stable Paretian distributions," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 195-211, March.
    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. Durante Fabrizio & Puccetti Giovanni & Scherer Matthias, 2015. "A Journey from Statistics and Probability to Risk Theory An interview with Ludger Rüschendorf," Dependence Modeling, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Ali, Sajid & Raza, Naveed & Vinh Vo, Xuan & Le, Van, 2022. "Modelling the joint dynamics of financial assets using MGARCH family models: Insights into hedging and diversification strategies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Michele Leonardo Bianchi & Gian Luca Tassinari, 2018. "Forward-looking portfolio selection with multivariate non-Gaussian models and the Esscher transform," Papers 1805.05584, arXiv.org, revised May 2018.
    4. Margherita Giuzio & Sandra Paterlini, 2019. "Un-diversifying during crises: Is it a good idea?," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 401-432, July.
    5. Einmahl, John & Krajina, Andrea, 2023. "Empirical Likelihood Based Testing for Multivariate Regular Variation," Other publications TiSEM 261583f5-c571-48c6-8cea-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Asmerilda Hitaj & Lorenzo Mercuri & Edit Rroji, 2019. "Sensitivity analysis of Mixed Tempered Stable parameters with implications in portfolio optimization," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 71-95, February.
    7. Montshioa, Keitumetse & Muteba Mwamba, John Weirstrass & Bonga-Bonga, Lumengo, 2021. "Asset allocation in extreme market conditions: a comparative analysis between developed and emerging economies," MPRA Paper 106248, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Raza, Naveed & Ali, Sajid & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Rehman, Mobeen Ur & Salman, Aneel, 2019. "Can alternative hedging assets add value to Islamic-conventional portfolio mix: Evidence from MGARCH models," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 210-230.

    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. Mainik, Georg & Mitov, Georgi & Rüschendorf, Ludger, 2015. "Portfolio optimization for heavy-tailed assets: Extreme Risk Index vs. Markowitz," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 115-134.
    2. 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.
    3. Plachel, Lukas, 2019. "A unified model for regularized and robust portfolio optimization," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Platanakis, Emmanouil & Sutcliffe, Charles & Ye, Xiaoxia, 2021. "Horses for courses: Mean-variance for asset allocation and 1/N for stock selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(1), pages 302-317.
    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. 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.
    9. Zhilin Kang & Zhongfei Li, 2018. "An exact solution to a robust portfolio choice problem with multiple risk measures under ambiguous distribution," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 87(2), pages 169-195, April.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Loriana Pelizzon & Massimiliano Caporin, 2012. "Market volatility, optimal portfolios and naive asset allocations," Working Papers 2012_08, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    13. Maillet, Bertrand & Tokpavi, Sessi & Vaucher, Benoit, 2015. "Global minimum variance portfolio optimisation under some model risk: A robust regression-based approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(1), pages 289-299.
    14. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer & Shelton Peiris & Abhay K. Singh, 2014. "Hedge Fund Portfolio Diversification Strategies Across the GFC," Working Papers in Economics 14/27, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    15. Allen, D.E. & McAleer, M.J. & Powell, R.J. & Singh, A.K., 2015. "Down-side Risk Metrics as Portfolio Diversification Strategies across the GFC," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI2015-32, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    16. Hwang, Inchang & Xu, Simon & In, Francis, 2018. "Naive versus optimal diversification: Tail risk and performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 372-388.
    17. Istvan Varga-Haszonits & Fabio Caccioli & Imre Kondor, 2016. "Replica approach to mean-variance portfolio optimization," Papers 1606.08679, arXiv.org.
    18. Lassance, Nathan, 2022. "Reconciling mean-variance portfolio theory with non-Gaussian returns," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(2), pages 729-740.
    19. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer & Robert J. Powell & Abhay K. Singh, 2014. "European Market Portfolio Diversification Strategies across the GFC," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2014-27, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    20. Dai, Zhifeng & Wang, Fei, 2019. "Sparse and robust mean–variance portfolio optimization problems," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 523(C), pages 1371-1378.

    More about this item

    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:arx:papers:1505.04045. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.