Dynamic convex duality in constrained utility maximization

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we study a constrained utility maximization problem following the convex duality approach. After formulating the primal and dual problems, we construct the necessary and sufficient conditions for both the primal and dual problems in terms of forward and backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs) plus some additional conditions. Such formulation then allows us to explicitly characterize the primal optimal control as a function of the adjoint process coming from the dual FBSDEs in a dynamic fashion and vice versa. We also find that the optimal wealth process coincides with the adjoint process of the dual problem and vice versa. Finally we solve three constrained utility maximization problems, which contrasts the simplicity of the duality approach we propose and the technical complexity of solving the primal problem directly.     

A predictable decomposition in an infinite assets model with jumps. Application to hedging and optimal investment

Motivated by the theory of bond markets, we consider an infinite assets model driven by marked point process and Wiener process. The self-financed wealth processes are defined by using measure-valued strategies. Going further on the works of Bjork et al. [“Bond market structure in the presence of marked point processes”, Mathematical Finance, 7 (1997a) pp. 211–239; “Towards a general theory of bond markets”, Finance and Stochastics, 1 (1997b) pp. 141–174] who focus on the existence of martingale measures and market completeness questions, we study here the incompleteness case. Our main result is a predictable decomposition theorem for supermartingales in this infinite assets model context. The concept of approximate wealth processes is introduced, and we show in an example that the space of measure-valued strategies is not complete with respect to the semimartingale topology. As in the case of stock markets, one can then derive a dual representation of the super-replication cost and study the problem of utility maximization by duality methods.     

Utility maximization problem with random endowment and transaction costs: when wealth may become negative

In this article, we study the problem of maximizing expected utility from the terminal wealth with proportional transaction costs and random endowment. In the context of the existence of consistent price systems, we consider the duality between the primal utility maximization problem and the dual one, which is set up on the domain of finitely additive measures. In particular, we prove duality results for utility functions supporting possibly negative values. Moreover, we construct a shadow market by the dual optimal process and consider the utility-based pricing for random endowment.     

Portfolio optimization under shortfall risk constraint

This paper solves a utility maximization problem under utility-based shortfall risk constraint, by proposing an approach using Lagrange multiplier and convex duality. Under mild conditions on the asymptotic elasticity of the utility function and the loss function, we find an optimal wealth process for the constrained problem and characterize the bi-dual relation between the respective value functions of the constrained problem and its dual. This approach applies to both complete and incomplete markets. Moreover, the extension to more complicated cases is illustrated by solving the problem with a consumption process added. Finally, we give an example of utility and loss functions in the Black–Scholes market where the solutions have explicit forms.     

Optimal investment with random endowments and transaction costs: duality theory and shadow prices

This paper studies the utility maximization on the terminal wealth with random endowments and proportional transaction costs. To deal with unbounded random payoffs from some illiquid claims, we propose to work with the acceptable portfolios defined via the consistent price system such that the liquidation value processes stay above some stochastic thresholds. In the market consisting of one riskless bond and one risky asset, we obtain a type of super-hedging result. Based on this characterization of the primal space, the existence and uniqueness of the optimal solution for the utility maximization problem are established using the duality approach. As an important application of the duality theorem, we provide some sufficient conditions for the existence of a shadow price process with random endowments in a generalized form similar to Czichowsky and Schachermayer (Ann Appl Probab 26(3):1888–1941, 2016) as well as in the usual sense using acceptable portfolios.

     

Utility maximization problem in the case of unbounded endowment

We consider a problem of expected utility maximization with an utility function finite on ?₊ and with an unbounded random endowment in an abstract model of financial market. We formulate a dual problem to the primal one and prove duality relations between them. In addition, we study necessary conditions to the existence of solutions to the primal problem. Finally, we reduce the dual problem to a form more convenient for practice.     

不完全市场下基于对数效用的动态投资组合

应用鞅方法研究不完全市场下的动态投资组合优化问题。首先,通过降低布朗运动的维数将不完全金融市场转化为完全金融市场,并在转化后的完全金融市场里应用鞅方法研究对数效用函数下的动态投资组合问题,得到了最优投资策略的显示表达式。然后,根据转化后的完全金融市场与原不完全金融市场之间的参数关系,得到原不完全金融市场下的最优投资策略。算例分析比较了不完全金融市场与转化后的完全金融市场下最优投资策略的变化趋势,并与幂效用、指数效用下最优投资策略的变化趋势做了比较。     

Solutions and optimality criteria for nonconvex constrained global optimization problems with connections between canonical and Lagrangian duality

This paper presents a canonical duality theory for solving a general nonconvex quadratic minimization problem with nonconvex constraints. By using the canonical dual transformation developed by the first author, the nonconvex primal problem can be converted into a canonical dual problem with zero duality gap. A general analytical solution form is obtained. Both global and local extrema of the nonconvex problem can be identified by the triality theory associated with the canonical duality theory. Illustrative applications to quadratic minimization with multiple quadratic constraints, box/integer constraints, and general nonconvex polynomial constraints are discussed, along with insightful connections to classical Lagrangian duality. Criteria for the existence and uniqueness of optimal solutions are presented. Several numerical examples are provided.     

Solutions to quadratic minimization problems with box and integer constraints

This paper presents a canonical duality theory for solving quadratic minimization problems subjected to either box or integer constraints. Results show that under Gao and Strang’s general global optimality condition, these well-known nonconvex and discrete problems can be converted into smooth concave maximization dual problems over closed convex feasible spaces without duality gap, and can be solved by well-developed optimization methods. Both existence and uniqueness of these canonical dual solutions are presented. Based on a second-order canonical dual perturbation, the discrete integer programming problem is equivalent to a continuous unconstrained Lipschitzian optimization problem, which can be solved by certain deterministic technique. Particularly, an analytical solution is obtained under certain condition. A fourth-order canonical dual perturbation algorithm is presented and applications are illustrated. Finally, implication of the canonical duality theory for the popular semi-definite programming method is revealed.     

A utility maximization approach to hedging in incomplete markets

In this paper we introduce the notion of portfolio optimization by maximizing expected local utility. This concept is related to maximization of expected utility of consumption but, contrary to this common approach, the discounted financial gains are consumed immediately. In a general continuous-time market optimal portfolios are obtained by pointwise solution of equations involving the semimartingale characteristics of the underlying securities price process. The new concept is applied to hedging problems in frictionless, incomplete markets.     

Non-differentiable symmetric duality for multiobjective programming with cone constraints

Two pairs of non-differentiable multiobjective symmetric dual problems with cone constraints over arbitrary cones, which are Wolfe type and Mond–Weir type, are considered. On the basis of weak efficiency with respect to a convex cone, we obtain symmetric duality results for the two pairs of problems under cone-invexity and cone-pseudoinvexity assumptions on the involved functions. Our results extend the results in Khurana [S. Khurana, Symmetric duality in multiobjective programming involving generalized cone-invex functions, European Journal of Operational Research 165 (2005) 592–597] to the non-differentiable multiobjective symmetric dual problem.     

Optimal Control for Utility Portfolio Selection with Liability

In this paper we use stochastic optimal control theory to investigate a dynamic portfolio selection problem with liability process, in which the liability process is assumed to be a geometric Brownian motion and completely correlated with stock prices. We apply dynamic programming principle to obtain Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations for the value function and systematically study the optimal investment strategies for power utility, exponential utility and logarithm utility. Firstly, the explicit expressions of the optimal portfolios for power utility and exponential utility are obtained by applying variable change technique to solve corresponding HJB equations. Secondly, we apply Legendre transform and dual approach to derive the optimal portfolio for logarithm utility. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the results obtained and analyze the effects of the market parameters on the optimal portfolios.     

Martingale optimal transport and robust hedging in continuous time

The duality between the robust (or equivalently, model independent) hedging of path dependent European options and a martingale optimal transport problem is proved. The financial market is modeled through a risky asset whose price is only assumed to be a continuous function of time. The hedging problem is to construct a minimal super-hedging portfolio that consists of dynamically trading the underlying risky asset and a static position of vanilla options which can be exercised at the given, fixed maturity. The dual is a Monge–Kantorovich type martingale transport problem of maximizing the expected value of the option over all martingale measures that have a given marginal at maturity. In addition to duality, a family of simple, piecewise constant super-replication portfolios that asymptotically achieve the minimal super-replication cost is constructed.     

Distributionally robust optimization with matrix moment constraints: Lagrange duality and cutting plane methods

A key step in solving minimax distributionally robust optimization (DRO) problems is to reformulate the inner maximization w.r.t. probability measure as a semiinfinite programming problem through Lagrange dual. Slater type conditions have been widely used for strong duality (zero dual gap) when the ambiguity set is defined through moments. In this paper, we investigate effective ways for verifying the Slater type conditions and introduce other conditions which are based on lower semicontinuity of the optimal value function of the inner maximization problem. Moreover, we propose two discretization schemes for solving the DRO with one for the dualized DRO and the other directly through the ambiguity set of the DRO. In the absence of strong duality, the discretization scheme via Lagrange duality may provide an upper bound for the optimal value of the DRO whereas the direct discretization approach provides a lower bound. Two cutting plane schemes are consequently proposed: one for the discretized dualized DRO and the other for the minimax DRO with discretized ambiguity set. Convergence analysis is presented for the approximation schemes in terms of the optimal value, optimal solutions and stationary points. Comparative numerical results are reported for the resulting algorithms.

     

Wealth optimization and dual problems for jump stock dynamics with stochastic factor

An incomplete financial market is considered with a risky asset and a bond. The risky asset price is a pure jump process whose dynamics depends on a jump-diffusion stochastic factor describing the activity of other markets, macroeconomics factors or microstructure rules that drive the market. With a stochastic control approach, maximization of the expected utility of terminal wealth is discussed for utility functions of constant relative risk aversion type. Under suitable assumptions, closed form solutions for the value functions and for the optimal strategy are provided and verification results are discussed. Moreover, the solution to the dual problems associated with the utility maximization problems is derived.     

Solving dual problems using a coevolutionary optimization algorithm

In solving certain optimization problems, the corresponding Lagrangian dual problem is often solved simply because in these problems the dual problem is easier to solve than the original primal problem. Another reason for their solution is the implication of the weak duality theorem which suggests that under certain conditions the optimal dual function value is smaller than or equal to the optimal primal objective value. The dual problem is a special case of a bilevel programming problem involving Lagrange multipliers as upper-level variables and decision variables as lower-level variables. Another interesting aspect of dual problems is that both lower and upper-level optimization problems involve only box constraints and no other equality of inequality constraints. In this paper, we propose a coevolutionary dual optimization (CEDO) algorithm for co-evolving two populations—one involving Lagrange multipliers and other involving decision variables—to find the dual solution. On 11 test problems taken from the optimization literature, we demonstrate the efficacy of CEDO algorithm by comparing it with a couple of nested smooth and nonsmooth algorithms and a couple of previously suggested coevolutionary algorithms. The performance of CEDO algorithm is also compared with two classical methods involving nonsmooth (bundle) optimization methods. As a by-product, we analyze the test problems to find their associated duality gap and classify them into three categories having zero, finite or infinite duality gaps. The development of a coevolutionary approach, revealing the presence or absence of duality gap in a number of commonly-used test problems, and efficacy of the proposed coevolutionary algorithm compared to usual nested smooth and nonsmooth algorithms and other existing coevolutionary approaches remain as the hallmark of the current study.     

Symmetric duality for a class of nondifferentiable multi-objective fractional variational problems

We introduce a symmetric dual pair for a class of nondifferentiable multi-objective fractional variational problems. Weak, strong, converse and self duality relations are established under certain invexity assumptions. The paper includes extensions of previous symmetric duality results for multi-objective fractional variational problems obtained by Kim, Lee and Schaible [D.S. Kim, W.J. Lee, S. Schaible, Symmetric duality for invex multiobjective fractional variational problems, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 289 (2004) 505-521] and symmetric duality results for the static case obtained by Yang, Wang and Deng [X.M. Yang, S.Y. Wang, X.T. Deng, Symmetric duality for a class of multiobjective fractional programming problems, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 274 (2002) 279-295] to the dynamic case.     

An η-approximation approach to duality in mathematical programming problems involving r-invex functions

An η-approximation approach introduced by Antczak [T. Antczak, A new method of solving nonlinear mathematical programming problems involving r-invex functions, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 311 (2005) 313-323] is used to obtain a solution Mond-Weir dual problems involving r-invex functions. η-Approximated Mond-Weir dual problems are introduced for the η-approximated optimization problem constructed in this method associated with the original nonlinear mathematical programming problem. By the help of η-approximated dual problems various duality results are established for the original mathematical programming problem and its original Mond-Weir duals.     

Fenchel-Rockafellar type duality for a non-convex non-differential optimization problem

A Fenchel-Rockafellar type duality theorem is obtained for a non-convex and non-differentiable maximization problem by embedding the original problem in a family of perturbed problems. The recent results of Ivan Singer are developed in this more general framework. A relationship is also established between the solutions and optimal values of the primal and dual problems using the theory of subdifferential calculus.