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A new spin on optimal portfolios and ecological equilibria

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  • Jerome Garnier-Brun
  • Michael Benzaquen
  • Stefano Ciliberti
  • Jean-Philippe Bouchaud

Abstract

We consider the classical problem of optimal portfolio construction with the constraint that no short position is allowed, or equivalently the valid equilibria of multispecies Lotka-Volterra equations with self-regulation in the special case where the interaction matrix is of unit rank, corresponding to species competing for a common resource. We compute the average number of solutions and show that its logarithm grows as $N^\alpha$, where $N$ is the number of assets or species and $\alpha \leq 2/3$ depends on the interaction matrix distribution. We conjecture that the most likely number of solutions is much smaller and related to the typical sparsity $m(N)$ of the solutions, which we compute explicitly. We also find that the solution landscape is similar to that of spin-glasses, i.e. very different configurations are quasi-degenerate. Correspondingly, "disorder chaos" is also present in our problem. We discuss the consequence of such a property for portfolio construction and ecologies, and question the meaning of rational decisions when there is a very large number "satisficing" solutions.

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  • Jerome Garnier-Brun & Michael Benzaquen & Stefano Ciliberti & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2021. "A new spin on optimal portfolios and ecological equilibria," Papers 2104.00668, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2104.00668
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Axel Pruser & Imre Kondor & Andreas Engel, 2021. "Aspects of a phase transition in high-dimensional random geometry," Papers 2105.04395, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2021.
    2. Jean Philippe Bouchaud & Matteo Marsili & Jean-Pierre Nadal, 2023. "Application of spin glass ideas in social sciences, economics and finance," Post-Print hal-04145594, HAL.
    3. Jean-Philippe Bouchaud & Matteo Marsili & Jean-Pierre Nadal, 2023. "Application of spin glass ideas in social sciences, economics and finance," Papers 2306.16165, arXiv.org.

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