Conditional value at risk and related linear programming models for portfolio optimization

Many risk measures have been recently introduced which (for discrete random variables) result in Linear Programs (LP). While some LP computable risk measures may be viewed as approximations to the variance (e.g., the mean absolute deviation or the Gini’s mean absolute difference), shortfall or quantile risk measures are recently gaining more popularity in various financial applications. In this paper we study LP solvable portfolio optimization models based on extensions of the Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) measure. The models use multiple CVaR measures thus allowing for more detailed risk aversion modeling. We study both the theoretical properties of the models and their performance on real-life data.     

Robust portfolio optimization with copulas

Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) is widely used in portfolio optimization as a measure of risk. CVaR is clearly dependent on the underlying probability distribution of the portfolio. We show how copulas can be introduced to any problem that involves distributions and how they can provide solutions for the modeling of the portfolio. We use this to provide the copula formulation of the CVaR of a portfolio. Given the critical dependence of CVaR on the underlying distribution, we use a robust framework to extend our approach to Worst Case CVaR (WCVaR). WCVaR is achieved through the use of rival copulas. These rival copulas have the advantage of exploiting a variety of dependence structures, symmetric and not. We compare our model against two other models, Gaussian CVaR and Worst Case Markowitz. Our empirical analysis shows that WCVaR can asses the risk more adequately than the two competitive models during periods of crisis.     

一种多目标条件风险值数学模型

研究了一种多目标条件风险值(CVaR)数学模型理论.先定义了一种多目标损失函数下的α-VaR和α-CVaR值,给出了多目标CVaR最优化模型.然后证明了多目标意义下的α-VaR和α-CVaR值的等价定理,并且给出了对于多目标损失函数的条件风险值的一致性度量性质.最后,给出了多目标CVaR模型的近似求解模型.     

Asymptotic behavior of the empirical conditional value-at-risk

We study asymptotic behavior of the empirical conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). In particular, the Berry–Essen bound, the law of iterated logarithm, the moderate deviation principle and the large deviation principle for the empirical CVaR are obtained. We also give some numerical examples.     

Risk-averse feasible policies for large-scale multistage stochastic linear programs

We develop tractable semidefinite programming based approximations for distributionally robust individual and joint chance constraints, assuming that only the first- and second-order moments as well as the support of the uncertain parameters are given. It is known that robust chance constraints can be conservatively approximated by Worst-Case Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) constraints. We first prove that this approximation is exact for robust individual chance constraints with concave or (not necessarily concave) quadratic constraint functions, and we demonstrate that the Worst-Case CVaR can be computed efficiently for these classes of constraint functions. Next, we study the Worst-Case CVaR approximation for joint chance constraints. This approximation affords intuitive dual interpretations and is provably tighter than two popular benchmark approximations. The tightness depends on a set of scaling parameters, which can be tuned via a sequential convex optimization algorithm. We show that the approximation becomes essentially exact when the scaling parameters are chosen optimally and that the Worst-Case CVaR can be evaluated efficiently if the scaling parameters are kept constant. We evaluate our joint chance constraint approximation in the context of a dynamic water reservoir control problem and numerically demonstrate its superiority over the two benchmark approximations.     

Conditional value-at-risk in portfolio optimization: Coherent but fragile

We evaluate conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) as a risk measure in data-driven portfolio optimization. We show that portfolios obtained by solving mean-CVaR and global minimum CVaR problems are unreliable due to estimation errors of CVaR and/or the mean, which are magnified by optimization. This problem is exacerbated when the tail of the return distribution is made heavier. We conclude that CVaR, a coherent risk measure, is fragile in portfolio optimization due to estimation errors.     

Asymptotic behavior of the empirical conditional value-at-risk

We study asymptotic behavior of the empirical conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). In particular, the Berry–Essen bound, the law of iterated logarithm, the moderate deviation principle and the large deviation principle for the empirical CVaR are obtained. We also give some numerical examples.     

CVaR norm and applications in optimization

This paper introduces the family of CVaR norms in \({\mathbb {R}}^{n}\) , based on the CVaR concept. The CVaR norm is defined in two variations: scaled and non-scaled. The well-known \(L_{1}\) and \(L_{\infty }\) norms are limiting cases of the new family of norms. The D-norm, used in robust optimization, is equivalent to the non-scaled CVaR norm. We present two relatively simple definitions of the CVaR norm: (i) as the average or the sum of some percentage of largest absolute values of components of vector; (ii) as an optimal solution of a CVaR minimization problem suggested by Rockafellar and Uryasev. CVaR norms are piece-wise linear functions on \({\mathbb {R}}^{n}\) and can be used in various applications where the Euclidean norm is typically used. To illustrate, in the computational experiments we consider the problem of projecting a point onto a polyhedral set. The CVaR norm allows formulating this problem as a convex or linear program for any level of conservativeness.     

基于MCMC模拟的MGPD模型及其在地质灾害风险度量中的应用

基于马尔科夫链蒙特卡洛(简记为MCMC)模拟的参数贝叶斯估计,对改进的广义帕累托分布(简记为MGPD)模型进行了优化,并利用该模型得到了地质灾害损失的在险损失值(简记为VaR)和条件损失值(简记为CVaR).以湖南娄底市地质灾害损失数据进行实证分析及模型适应性检验,结果表明:优化后的模型不仅具有很好的极值数据描述能力,而且具有较强的适用性.     

An exact method for constrained maximization of the conditional value-at-risk of a class of stochastic submodular functions

We consider a class of risk-averse submodular maximization problems (RASM) where the objective is the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) of a random nondecreasing submodular function at a given risk level. We propose valid inequalities and an exact general method for solving RASM under the assumption that we have an efficient oracle that computes the CVaR of the random function. We demonstrate the proposed method on a stochastic set covering problem that admits an efficient CVaR oracle for the random coverage function.     

About the conditional value at risk of partial sums

In this note, we give normal approximation results for the conditional value at risk (CVaR) of partial sums of random variables satisfying moment assumptions. These results are based on Berry–Esseen-type bounds for transport costs in the central limit theorem and extensions of Cantelli's inequalities to the CVaR.     

Entropic Value-at-Risk: A New Coherent Risk Measure

This paper introduces the concept of entropic value-at-risk (EVaR), a new coherent risk measure that corresponds to the tightest possible upper bound obtained from the Chernoff inequality for the value-at-risk (VaR) as well as the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). We show that a broad class of stochastic optimization problems that are computationally intractable with the CVaR is efficiently solvable when the EVaR is incorporated. We also prove that if two distributions have the same EVaR at all confidence levels, then they are identical at all points. The dual representation of the EVaR is closely related to the Kullback-Leibler divergence, also known as the relative entropy. Inspired by this dual representation, we define a large class of coherent risk measures, called g-entropic risk measures. The new class includes both the CVaR and the EVaR.     

TTRISK: Tensor train decomposition algorithm for risk averse optimization

This article develops a new algorithm named TTRISK to solve high-dimensional risk-averse optimization problems governed by differential equations (ODEs and/or partial differential equations [PDEs]) under uncertainty. As an example, we focus on the so-called Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR), but the approach is equally applicable to other coherent risk measures. Both the full and reduced space formulations are considered. The algorithm is based on low rank tensor approximations of random fields discretized using stochastic collocation. To avoid nonsmoothness of the objective function underpinning the CVaR, we propose an adaptive strategy to select the width parameter of the smoothed CVaR to balance the smoothing and tensor approximation errors. Moreover, unbiased Monte Carlo CVaR estimate can be computed by using the smoothed CVaR as a control variate. To accelerate the computations, we introduce an efficient preconditioner for the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) system in the full space formulation.The numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed method enables accurate CVaR optimization constrained by large-scale discretized systems. In particular, the first example consists of an elliptic PDE with random coefficients as constraints. The second example is motivated by a realistic application to devise a lockdown plan for United Kingdom under COVID-19. The results indicate that the risk-averse framework is feasible with the tensor approximations under tens of random variables.     

Time Consistent Dynamic Risk Measures

We introduce the time-consistency concept that is inspired by the so-called “principle of optimality” of dynamic programming and demonstrate – via an example – that the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) need not be time-consistent in a multi-stage case. Then, we give the formulation of the target-percentile risk measure which is time-consistent and hence more suitable in the multi-stage investment context. Finally, we also generalize the value-at-risk and CVaR to multi-stage risk measures based on the theory and structure of the target-percentile risk measure.     

Concentration bounds for empirical conditional value-at-risk: The unbounded case

Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) is a popular risk measure for modelling losses in the case of a rare but extreme event. We consider the problem of estimating CVaR from i.i.d. samples of an unbounded random variable, which is either sub-Gaussian or sub-exponential. We derive a novel one-sided concentration bound for a natural sample-based CVaR estimator in this setting. Our bound relies on a concentration result for a quantile-based estimator for Value-at-Risk (VaR), which may be of independent interest.     

Newsvendor solutions via conditional value-at-risk minimization

In this paper, we consider the minimization of the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR), a most preferable risk measure in financial risk management, in the context of the well-known single-period newsvendor problem, which is originally formulated as the maximization of the expected profit or the minimization of the expected cost. We show that downside risk measures including the CVaR are tractable in the problem due to their convexity, and consequently, under mild assumptions on the probability distribution of products’ demand, we provide analytical solutions or linear programming (LP) formulation of the minimization of the CVaR measures defined with two different loss functions. Numerical examples are also exhibited, clarifying the difference among the models analyzed in this paper, and demonstrating the efficiency of the LP solutions.     

基于CVaR的最优投资组合模型算法分析

通过引入光滑因子,改进了基于条件风险值(CVaR)的最优投资组合线性模型,并详细介绍了以VaR最小为目标函数的最优投资组合模型的算法设计思想与过程.     

CVaR、VaR应用在RAROC的比较研究

本文将CVaR引入到RAROC(R isk-Ad justed Return on Cap ital)中,进行绩效评价。而且,将CVaR与VaR的结果进行了比较。在正态分布的情况下,CVaR与VaR的RAPM(R isk-Ad justedPerform ance M easure)对于绩效评价都是充分的、可靠的、有效的,且两者是等价的。但在非正态的情况下,CVaR的RAPM相对于VaR的RAPM更加充分、谨慎、可靠、有效。我们运用Bootstrap方法进行了实证研究。     

On solving the dual for portfolio selection by optimizing Conditional Value at Risk

This note is focused on computational efficiency of the portfolio selection models based on the Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) risk measure. The CVaR measure represents the mean shortfall at a specified confidence level and its optimization may be expressed with a Linear Programming (LP) model. The corresponding portfolio selection models can be solved with general purpose LP solvers. However, in the case of more advanced simulation models employed for scenario generation one may get several thousands of scenarios. This may lead to the LP model with huge number of variables and constraints thus decreasing the computational efficiency of the model. To overcome this difficulty some alternative solution approaches are explored employing cutting planes or nondifferential optimization techniques among others. Without questioning importance and quality of the introduced methods we demonstrate much better performances of the simplex method when applied to appropriately rebuilt CVaR models taking advantages of the LP duality.     

Optimal multivariate quota-share reinsurance: A nonparametric mean-CVaR framework

In this paper, the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) is adopted to measure the total loss of multiple lines of insurance business and two nonparametric estimation methods are introduced to explore the optimal multivariate quota-share reinsurance under a mean-CVaR framework. While almost all the existing literature on optimal reinsurance are based on a probabilistic derivation, the present paper relies on a statistical analysis. The proposed optimal reinsurance models are directly formulated on empirical data and no explicit distributional assumption on the underlying risk vector is required. The resulting nonparametric reinsurance models are convex and computationally amenable, circumventing the difficulty of computing CVaR of the sum of a generally dependent random vector. Statistical consistency of the resulting estimators for the best CVaR is established for both nonparametric models, allowing empirical data to be generated from any stationary process satisfying strong mixing conditions. Finally, numerical experiments are presented to show that a routine bootstrap procedure can capture the distributions of the resulting risk measures well for independent data.