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Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach

Since the establishment of Markowitz's theory, numerous studies have been carried out over the past six decades or so that cover the benefits, limitations, modifications and enhancements of Mean Variance (MV) optimisation. This study endeavours to extend on this, by means of adding factors to the mi...

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Main Author: Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti
Other Authors: Bradfield, David
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Statistical Sciences 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti
author2 Bradfield, David
author_browse Bradfield, David
Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti
author_facet Bradfield, David
Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti
author_sort Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti
collection Thesis
description Since the establishment of Markowitz's theory, numerous studies have been carried out over the past six decades or so that cover the benefits, limitations, modifications and enhancements of Mean Variance (MV) optimisation. This study endeavours to extend on this, by means of adding factors to the minimum variance framework, which would increase the likelihood of outperforming both the market and the minimum variance portfolio (MVP). An analysis of the impact of these factor tilts on the MVP is carried out in the South African environment, represented by the FTSE-JSE Shareholder weighted Index as the benchmark portfolio. The main objective is to examine if the systematic and robust methods employed, which involve the incorporation of factor tilts into the multicriteria problem, together with covariance shrinkage – improve the performance of the MVP. The factor tilts examined include Active Distance, Concentration and Volume. Additionally, the constant correlation model is employed in the estimation of the shrinkage intensity, structured covariance target and shrinkage estimator. The results of this study showed that with specific levels of factor tilting, one can generally improve both absolute and risk-adjusted performance and lower concentration levels in comparison to both the MVP and benchmark. Additionally, lower turnover levels were observed across all tilted portfolios, relative to the MVP. Furthermore, covariance shrinkage enhanced all portfolio statistics examined, but significant improvement was noted on drawdown levels, capture ratios and risk. This is in contrast to the results obtained when the standard sample covariance matrix was employed.
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/23764 Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti Bradfield, David Brandt, Tobias Statistical Sciences Advanced Analytics And Decision Sciences Since the establishment of Markowitz's theory, numerous studies have been carried out over the past six decades or so that cover the benefits, limitations, modifications and enhancements of Mean Variance (MV) optimisation. This study endeavours to extend on this, by means of adding factors to the minimum variance framework, which would increase the likelihood of outperforming both the market and the minimum variance portfolio (MVP). An analysis of the impact of these factor tilts on the MVP is carried out in the South African environment, represented by the FTSE-JSE Shareholder weighted Index as the benchmark portfolio. The main objective is to examine if the systematic and robust methods employed, which involve the incorporation of factor tilts into the multicriteria problem, together with covariance shrinkage – improve the performance of the MVP. The factor tilts examined include Active Distance, Concentration and Volume. Additionally, the constant correlation model is employed in the estimation of the shrinkage intensity, structured covariance target and shrinkage estimator. The results of this study showed that with specific levels of factor tilting, one can generally improve both absolute and risk-adjusted performance and lower concentration levels in comparison to both the MVP and benchmark. Additionally, lower turnover levels were observed across all tilted portfolios, relative to the MVP. Furthermore, covariance shrinkage enhanced all portfolio statistics examined, but significant improvement was noted on drawdown levels, capture ratios and risk. This is in contrast to the results obtained when the standard sample covariance matrix was employed. 2017-01-31T09:11:46Z 2017-01-31T09:11:46Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23764 eng application/pdf Department of Statistical Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Statistical Sciences
Advanced Analytics And Decision Sciences
Lakhoo, Lala Bernisha Janti
Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach
title_full Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach
title_fullStr Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach
title_full_unstemmed Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach
title_short Enhanced minimum variance optimisation: a pragmatic approach
title_sort enhanced minimum variance optimisation a pragmatic approach
topic Statistical Sciences
Advanced Analytics And Decision Sciences
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23764
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