Model to Estimate Monthly Time Horizons for Application of DEA in Selection of Stock Portfolio and for Maintenance of the Selected Portfolio

In the selecting of stock portfolios, one type of analysis that has shown good results is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It, however, has been shown to have gaps regarding its estimates of monthly time horizons of data collection for the selection of stock portfolios and of monthly time horizons for the maintenance of a selected portfolio. To better estimate these horizons, this study proposes a model of mathematical programming binary of minimization of square errors. This model is the paper’s main contribution. The model’s results are validated by simulating the estimated annual return indexes of a portfolio that uses both horizons estimated and of other portfolios that do not use these horizons. The simulation shows that portfolios with both horizons estimated have higher indexes, on average 6.99% per year. The hypothesis tests confirm the statistically significant superiority of the results of the proposed mathematical model’s indexes. The model’s indexes are also compared with portfolios that use just one of the horizons estimated; here the indexes of the dual-horizon portfolios outperform the single-horizon portfolios, though with a decrease in percentage of statistically significant superiority.