Discrete Portfolio Adjustment with Fixed Transaction Costs

Discrete Portfolio Adjustment with Fixed Transaction Costs
Author: Linus Wilson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 14
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper presents a closed form solution to the portfolio adjustment problem in discrete time when the investor faces fixed transaction costs. This transaction cost model assumes a mean-variance investor who wants to adjust her holdings of a risky and risk-free asset. It is shown how this model can be calibrated to be used with a variety of risk models such as life cycle portfolio weights and value at risk (VaR) models. The decision problem can easily be inputted into and calculated in Excel.

Approximate Methods for Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Under Transaction Costs

Approximate Methods for Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Under Transaction Costs
Author: Nabeel Butt
Publisher:
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

The thesis provides simple and intuitive lattice based algorithms for solving dynamic portfolio allocation problems under transaction costs. The early part of the thesis concentrates upon developing a toolbox based on discrete probability approximations. The discrete approximations are shown to provide a reasonable approximation for most popular transaction cost models in the academic literature. The tool, once forged, is implemented in the powerful Mathematica based parallel computing environment. In the second part of the thesis we provide applications of our framework to real world problems. We show re-balancing portfolios is more valuable in an investment environment where the growth and volatility of risky assets is non-constant over the time horizon. We also provide a framework for modeling random transaction costs and compute the loss of expected utility of an investor faced with random transaction costs. Approximate methods are provided to solve portfolio constraints such as portfolio insurance and draw-down. Finally, we also highlight a lattice based framework for pairs trading.

Portfolio Selection with Transaction Costs and Jump-Diffusion Asset Dynamics I

Portfolio Selection with Transaction Costs and Jump-Diffusion Asset Dynamics I
Author: Michal Czerwonko
Publisher:
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

We derive allocation rules under isoelastic utility for a mixed jump-diffusion process in a two-asset portfolio selection problem with finite horizon in the presence of proportional transaction costs. We adopt a discrete time formulation, let the number of periods go to infinity, and show that it converges efficiently to the continuous time solution for the cases where this solution is known. We then apply this discretization to derive numerically the boundaries of the region of no transactions. Our discrete-time numerical approach outperforms alternative continuous-time approximations of the problem.

Worst-Case Approach to Strategic Optimal Portfolio Selection Under Transaction Costs and Trading Limits

Worst-Case Approach to Strategic Optimal Portfolio Selection Under Transaction Costs and Trading Limits
Author: Nikolay Andreev
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

We study a worst-case scenario approach to the stochastic dynamic programming problem, presenting a general probability-based framework and some properties of the arising Bellman-Isaacs equation which allow to obtain a closed-form analytic solution. We also adapt the results for a discrete financial market and the problem of strategic portfolio selection in the presence of transaction costs and trading limits with unspecified stochastic process of market parameters. Unlike the classic stochastic programming, the approach is model-free while the solution can be easily found numerically under economically reasonable assumptions. All results hold for a general class of utility functions and several risky assets. For a special case of proportional transaction costs and CRRA utility, we present a numerical scheme which allows to reduce the dimensionality of the Bellman-Isaacs equation by a number of risky assets.

Strategic Asset Allocation

Strategic Asset Allocation
Author: John Y. Campbell
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2002-01-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 019160691X

Academic finance has had a remarkable impact on many financial services. Yet long-term investors have received curiously little guidance from academic financial economists. Mean-variance analysis, developed almost fifty years ago, has provided a basic paradigm for portfolio choice. This approach usefully emphasizes the ability of diversification to reduce risk, but it ignores several critically important factors. Most notably, the analysis is static; it assumes that investors care only about risks to wealth one period ahead. However, many investors—-both individuals and institutions such as charitable foundations or universities—-seek to finance a stream of consumption over a long lifetime. In addition, mean-variance analysis treats financial wealth in isolation from income. Long-term investors typically receive a stream of income and use it, along with financial wealth, to support their consumption. At the theoretical level, it is well understood that the solution to a long-term portfolio choice problem can be very different from the solution to a short-term problem. Long-term investors care about intertemporal shocks to investment opportunities and labor income as well as shocks to wealth itself, and they may use financial assets to hedge their intertemporal risks. This should be important in practice because there is a great deal of empirical evidence that investment opportunities—-both interest rates and risk premia on bonds and stocks—-vary through time. Yet this insight has had little influence on investment practice because it is hard to solve for optimal portfolios in intertemporal models. This book seeks to develop the intertemporal approach into an empirical paradigm that can compete with the standard mean-variance analysis. The book shows that long-term inflation-indexed bonds are the riskless asset for long-term investors, it explains the conditions under which stocks are safer assets for long-term than for short-term investors, and it shows how labor income influences portfolio choice. These results shed new light on the rules of thumb used by financial planners. The book explains recent advances in both analytical and numerical methods, and shows how they can be used to understand the portfolio choice problems of long-term investors.