IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v151y2007i1p223-23910.1007-s10479-006-0117-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Portfolio selection with probabilistic utility

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Marschinski
  • Pietro Rossi
  • Massimo Tavoni
  • Flavio Cocco

Abstract

Inspired by statistical physics, we present a probabilistic approach to portfolio selection. Instead of seeking the global extremum of some chosen utility function, we reinterpret the latter as a probability distribution of ‘optimal’ portfolios, and select the portfolio that is given by the mean value with respect to that distribution. Compared to the standard maximization of expected utility, this approach has several attractive features. First, it significantly reduces the excessive sensitivity to external parameters that often plague optimization procedures. Second, it mitigates the commonly observed concentration on too few assets; and third, it provides a natural and consistent way to account for the incompleteness of information and the aversion to uncertainty. Supportive empirical evidence is derived by using artificial data to simulate finite-sample behavior and out-of-sample performance. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Marschinski & Pietro Rossi & Massimo Tavoni & Flavio Cocco, 2007. "Portfolio selection with probabilistic utility," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 223-239, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:151:y:2007:i:1:p:223-239:10.1007/s10479-006-0117-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-006-0117-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10479-006-0117-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-006-0117-5?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry, Christopher B, 1974. "Portfolio Analysis under Uncertain Means, Variances, and Covariances," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 515-522, May.
    2. Yacine AÏT‐SAHALI & Michael W. Brandt, 2001. "Variable Selection for Portfolio Choice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1297-1351, August.
    3. Andrea Consiglio & Flavio Cocco & Stavros A. Zenios, 2001. "The Value of Integrative Risk Management for Insurance Products with Guarantees," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(3), pages 6-16, February.
    4. David Hirshleifer, 2001. "Investor Psychology and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1533-1597, August.
    5. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, March.
    6. Frost, Peter A. & Savarino, James E., 1986. "An Empirical Bayes Approach to Efficient Portfolio Selection," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 293-305, September.
    7. Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal & Tan Wang, 2007. "Portfolio Selection with Parameter and Model Uncertainty: A Multi-Prior Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(1), pages 41-81, January.
    8. Ľuboš Pástor, 2000. "Portfolio Selection and Asset Pricing Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 179-223, February.
    9. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
    10. Jorion, Philippe, 1985. "International Portfolio Diversification with Estimation Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 259-278, July.
    11. Polson, Nicholas G & Tew, Bernard V, 2000. "Bayesian Portfolio Selection: An Empirical Analysis of the S&P 500 Index 1970-1996," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 18(2), pages 164-173, April.
    12. Nicholas Barberis, 2000. "Investing for the Long Run when Returns Are Predictable," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 225-264, February.
    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. Matkovskyy, Roman & Jalan, Akanksha & Dowling, Michael & Bouraoui, Taoufik, 2021. "From bottom ten to top ten: The role of cryptocurrencies in enhancing portfolio return of poorly performing stocks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    2. Ankit Dangi, 2013. "Financial Portfolio Optimization: Computationally guided agents to investigate, analyse and invest!?," Papers 1301.4194, arXiv.org.
    3. Emmanuel Jurczenko & Bertrand Maillet & Paul Merlin, 2008. "Efficient Frontier for Robust Higher-order Moment Portfolio Selection," Post-Print halshs-00336475, HAL.

    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. Penaranda, Francisco, 2007. "Portfolio choice beyond the traditional approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24481, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Detlef Seese & Christof Weinhardt & Frank Schlottmann (ed.), 2008. "Handbook on Information Technology in Finance," International Handbooks on Information Systems, Springer, number 978-3-540-49487-4, September.
    3. Matkovskyy, Roman & Jalan, Akanksha & Dowling, Michael & Bouraoui, Taoufik, 2021. "From bottom ten to top ten: The role of cryptocurrencies in enhancing portfolio return of poorly performing stocks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    4. Kellerer, Belinda, 2019. "Portfolio Optimization and Ambiguity Aversion," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 4(3), pages 305-338.
    5. DeMiguel, Victor & Martin-Utrera, Alberto & Nogales, Francisco J., 2013. "Size matters: Optimal calibration of shrinkage estimators for portfolio selection," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3018-3034.
    6. Michael W. Brandt & Pedro Santa-Clara & Rossen Valkanov, 2009. "Parametric Portfolio Policies: Exploiting Characteristics in the Cross-Section of Equity Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3411-3447, September.
    7. Avramov, Doron, 2002. "Stock return predictability and model uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 423-458, June.
    8. Wang, Christina Dan & Chen, Zhao & Lian, Yimin & Chen, Min, 2022. "Asset selection based on high frequency Sharpe ratio," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 168-188.
    9. Allen, D.E. & McAleer, M.J. & Powell, R.J. & Singh, A.K., 2015. "Down-side Risk Metrics as Portfolio Diversification Strategies across the GFC," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI2015-32, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    10. Mainik, Georg & Mitov, Georgi & Rüschendorf, Ludger, 2015. "Portfolio optimization for heavy-tailed assets: Extreme Risk Index vs. Markowitz," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 115-134.
    11. Kolm, Petter N. & Tütüncü, Reha & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2014. "60 Years of portfolio optimization: Practical challenges and current trends," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 356-371.
    12. Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal & Tan Wang, 2007. "Portfolio Selection with Parameter and Model Uncertainty: A Multi-Prior Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(1), pages 41-81, January.
    13. Wachter, Jessica A. & Warusawitharana, Missaka, 2009. "Predictable returns and asset allocation: Should a skeptical investor time the market?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 162-178, February.
    14. Dangl, Thomas & Randl, Otto & Zechner, Josef, 2016. "Risk control in asset management: Motives and concepts," CFS Working Paper Series 546, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    15. Bauder, David & Bodnar, Taras & Parolya, Nestor & Schmid, Wolfgang, 2020. "Bayesian inference of the multi-period optimal portfolio for an exponential utility," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    16. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer & Robert J. Powell & Abhay K. Singh, 2014. "European Market Portfolio Diversifcation Strategies across the GFC," Working Papers in Economics 14/25, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    17. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    18. Bodnar, Taras & Mazur, Stepan & Okhrin, Yarema, 2017. "Bayesian estimation of the global minimum variance portfolio," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(1), pages 292-307.
    19. David Bauder & Taras Bodnar & Stepan Mazur & Yarema Okhrin, 2018. "Bayesian Inference For The Tangent Portfolio," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(08), pages 1-27, December.
    20. Loriana Pelizzon & Massimiliano Caporin, 2012. "Market volatility, optimal portfolios and naive asset allocations," Working Papers 2012_08, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".

    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:spr:annopr:v:151:y:2007:i:1:p:223-239:10.1007/s10479-006-0117-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.