Optimal consumption and investment with insurer default risk

We solve the optimal consumption and investment problem in an incomplete market, where borrowing constraints and insurer default risk are considered jointly. We derive in closed-form the optimal consumption and investment strategies. We find two main results by quantitative analysis. As insurer default risk increases, the proportion of wealth invested in stocks could increase when wealth is small, and decrease when wealth is large. As risk aversion increases, the voluntary annuity demand could increase when insurer default risk is low, and decrease when this risk is high.     

On the sub-optimality cost of immediate annuitization in DC pension funds

We consider the position of a member of a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme having the possibility of taking programmed withdrawals at retirement. According to this option, she can defer annuitization of her fund to a propitious future time, that can be found to be optimal according to some criteria. This option, that adds remarkable flexibility in the choice of pension benefits, is not available in many countries, where immediate annuitization is compulsory at retirement. In this paper, we address and try to answer the questions: “Is immediate annuitization optimal? If it is not, what is the cost to be paid by the retiree obliged to annuitize at retirement?”. In order to do this, we consider the model by Gerrard et?al. in Quant Finance, (2011) and extend it in two different ways. In the first extension, we prove a theorem that provides necessary and sufficient conditions for immediate annuitization being always optimal. The not surprising result is that compulsory immediate annuitization turns out to be sub-optimal. We then quantify the extent of sub-optimality, by defining the sub-optimality cost as the loss of expected present value of consumption from retirement to death and measuring it in many typical situations. We find that it varies in relative terms between 6 and 40%, depending on the risk aversion of the member. In the second extension, we make extensive numerical investigations of the model and seek the optimal annuitization time. We find that the optimal annuitization time depends on personal factors such as the retiree’s risk aversion and her subjective perception of remaining lifetime. It also depends on the financial market, via the Sharpe ratio of the risky asset. Optimal annuitization should occur a few years after retirement with high risk aversion, low Sharpe ratio and/or short remaining lifetime, and many years after retirement with low risk aversion, high Sharpe ratio and/or long remaining lifetime. This paper supports the availability of programmed withdrawals as an option to retirees of DC pension schemes, by giving insight into the extent of loss in wealth suffered by a retiree who cannot choose programmed withdrawals, but is obliged to annuitize immediately on retirement.     

A stochastic programming model using an endogenously determined worst case risk measure for dynamic asset allocation

We present a new approach to asset allocation with transaction costs. A multiperiod stochastic linear programming model is developed where the risk is based on the worst case payoff that is endogenously determined by the model that balances expected return and risk. Utilizing portfolio protection and dynamic hedging, an investment portfolio similar to an option-like payoff structure on the initial investment portfolio is characterized. The relative changes in the expected terminal wealth, worst case payoff, and risk aversion, are studied theoretically and illustrated using a numerical example. This model dominates a static mean-variance model when the optimal portfolios are evaluated by the Sharpe ratio. Received: August 15, 1999 / Accepted: October 1, 2000?Published online December 15, 2000     

An existence theorem for the Scheinkman-Weiss economic model

The Scheinkman-Weiss model and later works by Conze-Lasry-Scheinkman provide insights on cycles and correlations of economies with incomplete markets, namely with borrowing constraints. This work gives a mathematical solution in the case of high relative risk aversion, which has not yet been solved. The existence of an equilibrium results from the solution of a system of nonlinear functional differential equations. High risk aversion leads to new mathematical difficulties, not present in previous papers on this subject.This work is an extension of previous works done under the direction of Professor Jean-Michel Lasry, University of Paris 9, Dauphine. The author is sincerely grateful to Professor Lasry who suggested the idea of this article and whose remarks were always of help.     

An examination of HMM‐based investment strategies for asset allocation

We develop and analyse investment strategies relying on hidden Markov model approaches. In particular, we use filtering techniques to aid an investor in his decision to allocate all of his investment fund to either growth or value stocks at a given time. As this allows the investor to switch between growth and value stocks, we call this first strategy a switching investment strategy. This switching strategy is compared with the strategies of purely investing in growth or value stocks by tracking the quarterly terminal wealth of a hypothetical portfolio for each strategy. Using the data sets on Russell 3000 growth index and Russell 3000 value index compiled by Russell Investment Services for the period 1995–2008, we find that the overall risk‐adjusted performance of the switching strategy is better than that of solely investing in either one of the indices. We also consider a second strategy referred to as a mixed investment strategy which enables the investor to allocate an optimal proportion of his investment between growth and value stocks given a level of risk aversion. Numerical demonstrations are provided using the same data sets on Russell 3000 growth and value indices. The switching investment strategy yields the best or second best Sharpe ratio as compared with those obtained from the pure index strategies and mixed strategy in 14 intervals. The performance of the mixed investment strategy under the HMM setting is also compared with that of the classical mean–variance approach. To make the comparison valid, we choose the same level of risk aversion for each set‐up. Our findings show that the mixed investment strategy within the HMM framework gives higher Sharpe ratios in 5 intervals of the time series than that given by the standard mean–variance approach. The calculated weights through time from the strategy incorporating the HMM set‐up are more stable. A simulation analysis further shows a higher performance stability of the HMM strategies compared with the pure strategies and the mean–variance strategy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal portfolio choice and stochastic volatility

In this paper we examine the effect of stochastic volatility on optimal portfolio choice in both partial and general equilibrium settings. In a partial equilibrium setting we derive an analog of the classic Samuelson–Merton optimal portfolio result and define volatility‐adjusted risk aversion as the effective risk aversion of an individual investing in an asset with stochastic volatility. We extend prior research which shows that effective risk aversion is greater with stochastic volatility than without for investors without wealth effects by providing further comparative static results on changes in effective risk aversion due to changes in the distribution of volatility. We demonstrate that effective risk aversion is increasing in the constant absolute risk aversion and the variance of the volatility distribution for investors without wealth effects. We further show that for these investors a first‐order stochastic dominant shift in the volatility distribution does not necessarily increase effective risk aversion, whereas a second‐order stochastic dominant shift in the volatility does increase effective risk aversion. Finally, we examine the effect of stochastic volatility on equilibrium asset prices. We derive an explicit capital asset pricing relationship that illustrates how stochastic volatility alters equilibrium asset prices in a setting with multiple risky assets, where returns have a market factor and asset‐specific random components and multiple investor types. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

风险规避和最优套期保值比率

在一般的期望效用框架下,研究投资者的风险厌恶态度对于其套期保值策略的影响.首先,给出了投资者采用不同套期保值策略时,效用函数应该满足的条件;其次,讨论了期望效用框架下,Rubinstein整体风险厌恶度量与经典的Arrow Pratt局部风险厌恶度量和更强的Ross的风险度量之间的关系,提出了一组条件,使得在该组条件下,风险厌恶的人际间比较可以用Rubinstein整体风险厌恶度量来刻画;最后,在现货和期货服从正态分布的假设下,使用之前提出的条件,研究投资者风险厌恶程度对于其持有的最优套期保值比率的影响.     

激励机制和VaR约束下的DC养老金计划的最优投资

研究了DC养老金经理在单一管理费以及混合收费(同时收取管理费与绩效费)这两种不同的薪酬机制和损失厌恶下的最优投资组合问题。利用凹化方法得到了存在终端财富约束下的最优财富过程和最优投资策略的解析表达式。数值结果表明损失厌恶,VaR约束和薪酬机制会极大地影响最优终端财富的分布。特别地,在决策参照点较高时,损失厌恶会导致混合薪酬机制下最优终端财富的尾部风险较低。     

Sharper asset ranking from total drawdown durations

The total duration of drawdowns is shown to provide a moment-free, unbiased, efficient and robust estimator of Sharpe ratios both for Gaussian and heavy-tailed price returns. We then use this quantity to infer an analytic expression of the bias of moment-based Sharpe ratio estimators as a function of the return distribution tail exponent. The heterogeneity of tail exponents at any given time among assets implies that our new method yields significantly different asset rankings than those of moment-based methods, especially in periods large volatility. This is fully confirmed by using 20 years of historical data on 3449 liquid US equities.     

Pricing life insurance under stochastic mortality via the instantaneous Sharpe ratio

We develop a pricing rule for life insurance under stochastic mortality in an incomplete market by assuming that the insurance company requires compensation for its risk in the form of a pre-specified instantaneous Sharpe ratio. Our valuation formula satisfies a number of desirable properties, many of which it shares with the standard deviation premium principle. The major result of the paper is that the price per contract solves a linear partial differential equation as the number of contracts approaches infinity. One can represent the limiting price as an expectation with respect to an equivalent martingale measure. Via this representation, one can interpret the instantaneous Sharpe ratio as a market price of mortality risk. Another important result is that if the hazard rate is stochastic, then the risk-adjusted premium is greater than the net premium, even as the number of contracts approaches infinity. Thus, the price reflects the fact that systematic mortality risk cannot be eliminated by selling more life insurance policies. We present a numerical example to illustrate our results, along with the corresponding algorithms.     

A multi-product risk-averse newsvendor with exponential utility function

We consider a multi-product newsvendor using an exponential utility function. We first establish a few basic properties for the newsvendor regarding the convexity of the model and monotonicity of the impact of risk aversion on the solution.When the product demands are independent and the ratio of the degree of risk aversion to the number of products is sufficiently small, we obtain closed-form approximations of the optimal order quantities. The approximations are as easy to compute as the risk-neutral solution. We prove that when this ratio approaches zero, the risk-averse solution converges to the corresponding risk-neutral solution. When the product demands are positively (negatively) correlated, we show that risk aversion leads to lower (higher) optimal order quantities than the solution with independent demands.Using a numerical study, we examine convergence rates of the approximations and thoroughly study the interplay of demand correlation and risk aversion. The numerical study confirms our analytical results and further shows that an increased risk aversion does not always lead to lower order quantities, when demands are strongly negatively correlated.     

Mean–variance optimal portfolios in the presence of a benchmark with applications to fraud detection

We first study mean–variance efficient portfolios when there are no trading constraints and show that optimal strategies perform poorly in bear markets. We then assume that investors use a stochastic benchmark (linked to the market) as a reference portfolio. We derive mean–variance efficient portfolios when investors aim to achieve a given correlation (or a given dependence structure) with this benchmark. We also provide upper bounds on Sharpe ratios and show how these bounds can be useful for fraud detection. For example, it is shown that under some conditions it is not possible for investment funds to display a negative correlation with the financial market and to have a positive Sharpe ratio. All the results are illustrated in a Black–Scholes market.     

基于VaR和ES调整的Sharpe比率及在基金评价中的实证研究

传统Sharpe比率将投资收益的标准差作为风险的度量,而实证研究中更关注基金的损失风险而非全部风险,这是收益标准差所无法准确刻画的。针对传统Sharpe比率的这一缺点,本文考虑了用于度量下方风险的指标风险价值VaR(Value at Risk)和预期不足ES(Expected Shortfall)来替代投资收益的标准差,从而对传统Sharpe比率进行了调整。这里对VaR和ES进行计算时,运用了经验非参数估计和非参数平滑核估计两种方法。此外,本文还考虑了基金收益随时间波动的动态性,用广义自回归异方差GARCH模型对收益波动进行模拟,考察动态的VaR和ES,在实践中以动态的VaR和ES评价风险收益更加灵活。在实证研究中,本文用传统的Sharpe比率、基于VaR和ES的Sharpe比率以及基于条件VaR和条件ES的条件Sharpe比率对国内证券市场上所有26只封闭式基金在2005-2009年间的业绩进行了实证分析,分析了基金在不同指标下所体现的风险控制能力和收益水平的差别,并基于不同指标对所有基金进行了排名。此外,本文还运用协整检验考察基金收益率与市场基准指数是否存在联动关系,检验证明两者并不存在长期的均衡关系。     

Comparison of optimal portfolios with and without subsistence consumption constraints

We present the effects of the subsistence consumption constraints on a portfolio selection problem for an agent who is free to choose when to retire with a constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility function. By comparing the previous studies with and without the constraints expressed by the minimum consumption requirement, the changes of a retirement wealth level and the amount of money invested in the risky asset are derived explicitly. As a result, the subsistence constraints always lead to lower retirement wealth level but do not always induce less investment in the risky asset. This implies that even though the agent who has a restriction on consumption retires with lower wealth level, she invests more money near the retirement when her risk aversion lies inside a certain range.     

Sharpe thinking in asset ranking with one-sided measures

If we exclude the assumption of normality in return distributions, the classical risk–reward Sharpe Ratio becomes a questionable tool for ranking risky projects. In line with Sharpe thinking, a general risk–reward ratio suitable to compare skewed returns with respect to a benchmark is introduced. The index includes asymmetrical information on: (1) “good” volatility (above the benchmark) and “bad” volatility (below the benchmark), and (2) asymmetrical preference to bet on potential high stakes and the aversion against possible huge losses. The former goal is achieved by using one-sided volatility measures and the latter by choosing the appropriate order for the one-sided moments involved. The Omega Index (see [Cascon A., Keating, C., Shadwick, W., 2002. Introduction to Omega, The Finance Development Centre]) and the Upside Potential Ratio (see [Sortino, F., Van Der Meer, R., Plantinga, A., 1999. The Dutch triangle. Journal of Portfolio Management, 26 (I, Fall), 50–58]) follow as special cases.     

Robust option pricing

In this paper, we combine robust optimization and the idea of ?$?$-arbitrage to propose a tractable approach to price a wide variety of options. Rather than assuming a probabilistic model for the stock price dynamics, we assume that the conclusions of probability theory, such as the central limit theorem, hold deterministically on the underlying returns. This gives rise to an uncertainty set that the underlying asset returns satisfy. We then formulate the option pricing problem as a robust optimization problem that identifies the portfolio which minimizes the worst case replication error for a given uncertainty set defined on the underlying asset returns. The most significant benefits of our approach are (a) computational tractability illustrated by our ability to price multi-asset, American and Asian options using linear optimization; and thus the computational complexity of our approach scales polynomially with the number of assets and with time to expiry and (b) modeling flexibility illustrated by our ability to model different kinds of options, various levels of risk aversion among investors, transaction costs, shorting constraints and replication via option portfolios.     

基于前景理论的建筑高危岗位人岗匹配冲突仿真研究

为了研究建筑高危岗位应聘人员的择岗特征,本文基于前景理论价值函数构建了人员风险岗位选择的元胞自动机模型进行仿真实验,而后对所得实验数据进行层次回归分析。结果表明,选择高危岗位的人员一般具有高估收益、低估事故损失和概率及低损失厌恶的心理特质,这与岗位要求相违背,即存在“高危人岗匹配悖论”;高基本工资、高安全激励和低风险补偿金的组合薪酬模式有助于高危岗位的人岗匹配;选聘对损失持续敏感的人员能有效降低安全风险;提高人员事故概率和损失预期、强化损失厌恶感知也有助于保障安全;针对人员择岗行为,损失厌恶与概率感知之间存在互补效应,而损失效用递减与损失厌恶、概率感知之间存在替代效应。     

Portfolio adjusting optimization with added assets and transaction costs based on credibility measures

In response to changeful financial markets and investor’s capital, we discuss a portfolio adjusting problem with additional risk assets and a riskless asset based on credibility theory. We propose two credibilistic mean–variance portfolio adjusting models with general fuzzy returns, which take lending, borrowing, transaction cost, additional risk assets and capital into consideration in portfolio adjusting process. We present crisp forms of the models when the returns of risk assets are some deterministic fuzzy variables such as trapezoidal, triangular and interval types. We also employ a quadratic programming solution algorithm for obtaining optimal adjusting strategy. The comparisons of numeral results from different models illustrate the efficiency of the proposed models and the algorithm.     

Worst-case robust Omega ratio

The Omega ratio is a recent performance measure proposed to overcome the known shortcomings of the Sharpe ratio. Until recently, the Omega ratio was thought to be computationally intractable, and research was focused on heuristic optimization procedures. We have shown elsewhere that the Omega ratio optimization is equivalent to a linear program and hence can be solved exactly in polynomial time. This permits the investigation of more complex and realistic variants of the problem. The standard formulation of the Omega ratio requires perfect information for the probability distribution of the asset returns. In this paper, we investigate the problem arising from the probability distribution of the asset returns being only partially known. We introduce the robust variant of the conventional Omega ratio that hedges against uncertainty in the probability distribution. We examine the worst-case Omega ratio optimization problem under three types of uncertainty – mixture distribution, box and ellipsoidal uncertainty – and show that the problem remains tractable.     

Portfolio adjusting optimization with added assets and transaction costs based on credibility measures

In response to changeful financial markets and investor’s capital, we discuss a portfolio adjusting problem with additional risk assets and a riskless asset based on credibility theory. We propose two credibilistic mean–variance portfolio adjusting models with general fuzzy returns, which take lending, borrowing, transaction cost, additional risk assets and capital into consideration in portfolio adjusting process. We present crisp forms of the models when the returns of risk assets are some deterministic fuzzy variables such as trapezoidal, triangular and interval types. We also employ a quadratic programming solution algorithm for obtaining optimal adjusting strategy. The comparisons of numeral results from different models illustrate the efficiency of the proposed models and the algorithm.