Solving non-linear portfolio optimization problems with the primal-dual interior point method

Stochastic programming is recognized as a powerful tool to help decision making under uncertainty in financial planning. The deterministic equivalent formulations of these stochastic programs have huge dimensions even for moderate numbers of assets, time stages and scenarios per time stage. So far models treated by mathematical programming approaches have been limited to simple linear or quadratic models due to the inability of currently available solvers to solve NLP problems of typical sizes. However stochastic programming problems are highly structured. The key to the efficient solution of such problems is therefore the ability to exploit their structure. Interior point methods are well-suited to the solution of very large non-linear optimization problems. In this paper we exploit this feature and show how portfolio optimization problems with sizes measured in millions of constraints and decision variables, featuring constraints on semi-variance, skewness or non-linear utility functions in the objective, can be solved with the state-of-the-art solver.     

Frame-Based Ray Search Algorithms in Unconstrained Optimization

This paper describes a class of frame-based direct search methods for unconstrained optimization without derivatives. A template for convergent direct search methods is developed, some requiring only the relative ordering of function values. At each iteration, the template considers a number of search steps which form a positive basis and conducts a ray search along a step giving adequate decrease. Various ray search strategies are possible, including discrete equivalents of the Goldstein–Armijo and one-sided Wolfe–Powell ray searches. Convergence is shown under mild conditions which allow successive frames to be rotated, translated, and scaled relative to one another.     

A parallel method for finding the global minimum of univariate functions

We describe a new parallel method for solving global optimization problems. The formulation of the decision rules of this method is presented. We examine convergence conditions of the proposed algorithm and establish conditions which guarantee a considerable speedup with respect to the sequential version of the algorithm. We also present some numerical experiments executed on Alliant FX/80 for one class of multiextremal functions.The authors are greatly indebted to R. G. Strongin who stimulated the fulfillment of this research. They also would like to thank the anonymous referees for their useful suggestions.The research of the first author was partially supported by Grant 9494/NC/89 from the Italian Government under the Italian-Soviet Agreement about the Cultural and Scientific Exchange in 1990–1991. He thanks the Systems Department, University of Calabria, where he was a Visitor.     

An Infeasible Point Method for Minimizing the Lennard-Jones Potential

Minimizing the Lennard-Jones potential, the most-studied modelproblem for molecular conformation, is an unconstrained globaloptimization problem with a large number of local minima. In thispaper, the problem is reformulated as an equality constrainednonlinear programming problem with only linear constraints. Thisformulation allows the solution to approached through infeasibleconfigurations, increasing the basin of attraction of the globalsolution. In this way the likelihood of finding a global minimizeris increased. An algorithm for solving this nonlinear program isdiscussed, and results of numerical tests are presented.     

Using stochastic optimization to determine threshold values for the control of unreliable manufacturing systems

A manufacturing system with two tandem machines producing one part type is considered in this work. The machines are unreliable, each having two states, up and down. Both surplus controls and Kanban systems are considered. Algorithms for approximating the optimal threshold values are developed. First, perturbation analysis techniques are employed to obtain consistent gradient estimates based on a single simulation run. Then, iterative algorithms of the stochastic optimization type are constructed. It is shown that the algorithms converge to the optimal threshold values in an appropriate sense. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the performance of the algorithms.The research of these authors was supported in part by grants from URIF, MRCO, National Science Foundation, and Wayne State University. The authors would like to thank Dr. X. R. Cao, Digital Equipment Corporation, for the valuable initial discussion and Dr. X. Y. Zhou, University of Toronto, for his helpful comments.     

Cord-slope form of Taylor's expansion in univariate global optimization

Interval arithmetic and Taylor's formula can be used to bound the slope of the cord of a univariate function at a given point. This leads in turn to bounding the values of the function itself. Computing such bounds for the function, its first and second derviatives, allows the determination of intervals in which this function cannot have a global minimum. Exploiting this information together with a simple branching rule yields an efficient algorithm for global minimization of univariate functions. Computational experience is reported.The first and second authors have been supported by FCAR (Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide à la Recherche) Grant 92EQ1048 and AFOSR Grant 90-0008 to Rutgers University. The first author has also been supported by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Grant to HEC and NSERC Grant GP0105574. The second author has been supported by NSERC Grant GP0036426, FCAR Grant 90NC0305, and a NSF Visiting Professorship for Women in Science at Princeton University. Work of the third author was done in part while he was a graduate student at the Department of Mathematics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA and during a visit to GERAD, June–August 1991.     

Computational experience with known variable metric updates

Variable metric methods from the Broyden family are well known and commonly used for unconstrained minimization. These methods have good theoretical and practical convergence properties which depend on a selection of free parameters. We demonstrate, using extensive computational experiments, the influence of both the Biggs stabilization parameter and Oren scaling parameter on 12 individual variable metric updates, two of which are new. This paper focuses on a class of variable metric updates belonging to the so-called preconvex part of the Broyden family. These methods outperform the more familiar BFGS method. We also experimentally demonstrate the efficiency of the controlled scaling strategy for problems of sufficient size and sparsity.     

Convergence of Perry and Shanno's Memoryless Quasi-Newton Method for Nonconvex Optimization Problems

1.IntroductionWeconsidertheunconstrainedoptimizationproblem:minj(x).(1.1)acRewheref:R"-- Riscontinuouslydifferelltiable.PerryandShanno'smemorylesssquasiNewtonmethodisoftenusedtosolvetheproblem(1.1)whennislarge.ItwasoriginatedfromtheworksofPerry(1977[l])an…     

Evolution by damage spreading in Kauffman model

In Kauffman's Boolean automata model on the square lattice, the Darwinian fitness of survival can be defined as the fraction of elements which do not change from one iteration to the next. Biological mutations are simulated by filpping one bit in the rule of one site. Selection of the fitter mutant then optimizes the whole lattice completely. This optimization is particularly effective near the critical point of the transition to chaos, but is in itself not a critical phenomenon. Also a two-dimensional spin glass can be optimized in this way.     

A saddle-point theorem with application to structural optimization

The relaxation for optimal complicance design is independent of whether the underlying elastic problem is formulated in terms of displacements or strains. For the purposes of numerical experimentation and computation, it may be advantageous to formulate optimal design problems in terms of displacements as is done in Ref. 1. The relaxed problem delivered by the displacement-based formulation is of min-min-max type. Because of this, efficient numerical implementation is hampered by the order of the last two min-max operations. We show here that the last two min-max operations may be exchanged, facilitating an efficient numerical algorithm. We remark that the rigorous results given here corroborate the numerical methods and experiments given in Ref. 1.This work was supported by NSF Grant DMS-92-05158.