IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v63y2017i10p3347-3360.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal and Naive Diversification in Currency Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Fabian Ackermann

    (Zurich Cantonal Bank, 8010 Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Walt Pohl

    (University of Zurich, 8044 Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Karl Schmedders

    (University of Zurich, 8044 Zurich, Switzerland; and Swiss Finance Institute, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland)

Abstract

DeMiguel et al. [DeMiguel V, Garlappi L, Uppal R (2009) Optimal versus naïve diversification: How inefficient is the 1/ N portfolio strategy? Rev. Financial Stud. 22(5):1915–1953] showed that in the stock market, it is difficult for an optimized portfolio constructed using mean-variance analysis to outperform a simple, equally weighted portfolio because of estimation error. In this paper, we demonstrate that portfolio optimization can be made to work in currency markets. The key difference between the two settings is that in currency markets interest rates provide a predictor of future returns that is free of estimation error, which permits the application of mean-variance analysis. We show that over the last 26 years, a mean-variance efficient portfolio constructed in this fashion has a Sharpe ratio of 0.91, versus only 0.15 for the equally weighted portfolio. We also consider the practical implementation of this strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabian Ackermann & Walt Pohl & Karl Schmedders, 2017. "Optimal and Naive Diversification in Currency Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3347-3360, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:63:y:2017:i:10:p:3347-3360
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2497
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2497
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2497?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabaix, Xavier & Verdelhan, Adrien & Rancière, Romain & Farhi, Emmanuel & Fraiberger, Samuel P., 2009. "Crash Risk in Currency Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 7322, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    3. Barbara Rossi, 2013. "Exchange Rate Predictability," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1063-1119, December.
    4. Kan, Raymond & Zhou, Guofu, 2007. "Optimal Portfolio Choice with Parameter Uncertainty," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 621-656, September.
    5. Hanno Lustig & Nikolai Roussanov & Adrien Verdelhan, 2011. "Common Risk Factors in Currency Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(11), pages 3731-3777.
    6. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum & Isaac Kleshchelski & Sergio Rebelo, 2011. "Do Peso Problems Explain the Returns to the Carry Trade?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(3), pages 853-891.
    7. Pasquale Della Corte & Lucio Sarno & Ilias Tsiakas, 2009. "An Economic Evaluation of Empirical Exchange Rate Models," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3491-3530, September.
    8. Adrien Verdelhan, 2018. "The Share of Systematic Variation in Bilateral Exchange Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(1), pages 375-418, February.
    9. Christiansen, Charlotte & Ranaldo, Angelo & Söderlind, Paul, 2011. "The Time-Varying Systematic Risk of Carry Trade Strategies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 1107-1125, August.
    10. Ledoit, Oliver & Wolf, Michael, 2008. "Robust performance hypothesis testing with the Sharpe ratio," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 850-859, December.
    11. Lukas Menkhoff & Lucio Sarno & Maik Schmeling & Andreas Schrimpf, 2012. "Carry Trades and Global Foreign Exchange Volatility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 681-718, April.
    12. Clarida, Richard & Davis, Josh & Pedersen, Niels, 2009. "Currency carry trade regimes: Beyond the Fama regression," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1375-1389, December.
    13. Fama, Eugene F., 1984. "Forward and spot exchange rates," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 319-338, November.
    14. Jurek, Jakub W., 2014. "Crash-neutral currency carry trades," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 325-347.
    15. Meese, Richard A. & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1983. "Empirical exchange rate models of the seventies : Do they fit out of sample?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1-2), pages 3-24, February.
    16. Barroso, Pedro & Santa-Clara, Pedro, 2015. "Beyond the Carry Trade: Optimal Currency Portfolios," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(5), pages 1037-1056, October.
    17. Korajczyk, Robert A, 1985. "The Pricing of Forward Contracts for Foreign Exchange," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 346-368, April.
    18. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Stefan Nagel & Lasse H. Pedersen, 2009. "Carry Trades and Currency Crashes," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 313-347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Ser-Huang Poon & Clive W.J. Granger, 2003. "Forecasting Volatility in Financial Markets: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 478-539, June.
    20. Vijay K. Chopra & William T. Ziemba, 2011. "The Effect of Errors in Means, Variances, and Covariances on Optimal Portfolio Choice," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & Edward O Thorp & William T Ziemba (ed.), THE KELLY CAPITAL GROWTH INVESTMENT CRITERION THEORY and PRACTICE, chapter 18, pages 249-257, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hafner, Christian & Herwartz, Helmut, 2020. "Dynamic score driven independent component analysis," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2020031, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    2. Alla Petukhina & Simon Trimborn & Wolfgang Karl Härdle & Hermann Elendner, 2021. "Investing with cryptocurrencies – evaluating their potential for portfolio allocation strategies," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(11), pages 1825-1853, November.
    3. Joscha Beckmann & Gary Koop & Dimitris Korobilis & Rainer Alexander Schüssler, 2020. "Exchange rate predictability and dynamic Bayesian learning," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(4), pages 410-421, June.
    4. Lawrence Kryzanowski & Jie Zhang & Rui Zhong, 2021. "Currency hedging and quantitative easing: Evidence from global bond markets," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 555-597, June.
    5. Yuta Hibiki & Takuya Kiriu & Norio Hibiki, 2024. "Optimal Currency Portfolio with Implied Return Distribution in the Mean-Variance Approach," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(2), pages 251-283, June.
    6. Kharrat, Sabrine & Hammami, Yacine & Fatnassi, Ibrahim, 2020. "On the cross-sectional relation between exchange rates and future fundamentals," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 484-501.
    7. Cheng Yan & Ji Yan, 2021. "Optimal and naive diversification in an emerging market: Evidence from China's A‐shares market," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3740-3758, July.
    8. Alexakis, Christos & Kenourgios, Dimitris & Pappas, Vasileios & Petropoulou, Athina, 2021. "From dotcom to Covid-19: A convergence analysis of Islamic investments," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Bazán-Palomino, Walter & Winkelried, Diego, 2021. "FX markets’ reactions to COVID-19: Are they different?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 50-58.
    10. Mikhail Chernov & Magnus Dahlquist & Lars Lochstoer, 2023. "Pricing Currency Risks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 693-730, April.
    11. Platanakis, Emmanouil & Sutcliffe, Charles & Urquhart, Andrew, 2018. "Optimal vs naïve diversification in cryptocurrencies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 93-96.
    12. Fan, Zhenzhen & Paseka, Alexander & Qi, Zhen & Zhang, Qi, 2022. "Currency carry trade: The decline in performance after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Opie, Wei & Riddiough, Steven J., 2020. "Global currency hedging with common risk factors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(3), pages 780-805.
    2. Yung, Julieta, 2021. "Can interest rate factors explain exchange rate fluctuations?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 34-56.
    3. Hertrich, Daniel, 2023. "Carry and conditional value at risk trend: Capturing the short-, intermediate-, and long-term trends of left-tail risk forecasts," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Gordon Schulze, 2021. "Carry Trade Returns and Segmented Risk Pricing," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 49(1), pages 23-40, March.
    5. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2017. "Asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes: a survey," BIS Working Papers 676, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. Wu, Chih-Chiang & Wu, Chang-Che, 2017. "The asymmetry in carry trade and the U.S. dollar," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 304-313.
    7. Yamani, Ehab, 2019. "Diversification role of currency momentum for carry trade: Evidence from financial crises," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-19.
    8. Cenedese, Gino & Sarno, Lucio & Tsiakas, Ilias, 2014. "Foreign exchange risk and the predictability of carry trade returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 302-313.
    9. Bakshi, Gurdip & Panayotov, George, 2013. "Predictability of currency carry trades and asset pricing implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 139-163.
    10. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Taylor, Mark P. & Wang, Zigan & Li, Yan, 2024. "The out-of-sample performance of carry trades," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    11. Corte, Pasquale Della & Kozhan, Roman & Neuberger, Anthony, 2021. "The cross-section of currency volatility premia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(3), pages 950-970.
    12. Bekaert, Geert & Panayotov, George, 2020. "Good Carry, Bad Carry," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 1063-1094, June.
    13. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    14. Nucera, Federico & Valente, Giorgio, 2013. "Carry trades and the performance of currency hedge funds," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 407-425.
    15. Mulder, Arjen & Tims, Ben, 2018. "Conditioning carry trades: Less risk, more return," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1-19.
    16. Daniel, Kent & Hodrick, Robert J. & Lu, Zhongjin, 2017. "The Carry Trade: Risks and Drawdowns," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 6(2), pages 211-262, September.
    17. Emilio Colombo & Gianfranco Forte & Roberto Rossignoli, 2019. "Carry Trade Returns with Support Vector Machines," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 483-504, September.
    18. Dahlquist, Magnus & Hasseltoft, Henrik, 2020. "Economic momentum and currency returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 152-167.
    19. Engel, Charles, 2014. "Exchange Rates and Interest Parity," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 453-522, Elsevier.
    20. Grisse, Christian & Nitschka, Thomas, 2015. "On financial risk and the safe haven characteristics of Swiss franc exchange rates," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 153-164.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    carry trade; currency; mean-variance analysis; portfolio optimization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • F37 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Finance Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:63:y:2017:i:10:p:3347-3360. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.