IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v5y2005i6d10.1057_palgrave.jam.2240159.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A note on portfolio performance attribution: Taking risk into account

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Bertrand

    (GREQAM-2, rue de la charité)

Abstract

This paper shows that performance attribution considered alone can be misleading. Indeed, portfolio managers who know perfectly the distribution of an asset's returns and who perform a relative portfolio optimisation according to that information may be penalised in some of their choices by the performance attribution process. In order to solve this apparent paradox, this paper proposes taking risk into account. It is established that the appropriate definition of risk in this management context is relative risk, as measured by the standard deviation of the tracking error. This measure makes it possible to justify the choices which were previously penalised. Moreover, it is proved that the information ratio of each decision (asset allocation and security selection) is the same. This means that some equilibrium between expected (or ex post mean) return and relative risk has been reached.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Bertrand, 2005. "A note on portfolio performance attribution: Taking risk into account," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(6), pages 428-437, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:5:y:2005:i:6:d:10.1057_palgrave.jam.2240159
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240159
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240159?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Maxwell & Michael Daly & Daniel Thomson & Gary van Vuuren, 2018. "Optimizing tracking error-constrained portfolios," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(54), pages 5846-5858, November.
    2. Jan Frederick Hausner & Gary van Vuuren, 2021. "Portfolio performance under tracking error and benchmark volatility constraints," Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(51), pages 94-111, June.
    3. Wade Gunning & Gary van Vuuren, 2019. "Exploring the drivers of tracking error constrained portfolio performance," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 1684181-168, January.
    4. L. Theron & G. van Vuuren, 2020. "Exploring the Behaviour of Actively Managed, Maximally Diversified Portfolios," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(2), pages 49-72, August.
    5. Michael Maxwell & Gary Vuuren, 2019. "Active Investment Strategies under Tracking Error Constraints," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 25(3), pages 309-322, August.
    6. Philippe Bertrand, 2009. "Risk-adjusted performance attribution and portfolio optimisations under tracking-error constraints," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(2), pages 75-88, June.

    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:pal:assmgt:v:5:y:2005:i:6:d:10.1057_palgrave.jam.2240159. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.