IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jotpro/v25y2012i3d10.1007_s10959-010-0338-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Close is the Sample Covariance Matrix to the Actual Covariance Matrix?

Author

Listed:
  • Roman Vershynin

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

Given a probability distribution in ℝ n with general (nonwhite) covariance, a classical estimator of the covariance matrix is the sample covariance matrix obtained from a sample of N independent points. What is the optimal sample size N=N(n) that guarantees estimation with a fixed accuracy in the operator norm? Suppose that the distribution is supported in a centered Euclidean ball of radius $O(\sqrt{n})$ . We conjecture that the optimal sample size is N=O(n) for all distributions with finite fourth moment, and we prove this up to an iterated logarithmic factor. This problem is motivated by the optimal theorem of Rudelson (J. Funct. Anal. 164:60–72, 1999), which states that N=O(nlog n) for distributions with finite second moment, and a recent result of Adamczak et al. (J. Am. Math. Soc. 234:535–561, 2010), which guarantees that N=O(n) for subexponential distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Roman Vershynin, 2012. "How Close is the Sample Covariance Matrix to the Actual Covariance Matrix?," Journal of Theoretical Probability, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 655-686, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jotpro:v:25:y:2012:i:3:d:10.1007_s10959-010-0338-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10959-010-0338-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10959-010-0338-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10959-010-0338-z?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. Ledoit, Olivier & Wolf, Michael, 2003. "Improved estimation of the covariance matrix of stock returns with an application to portfolio selection," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 603-621, December.
    2. Schäfer Juliane & Strimmer Korbinian, 2005. "A Shrinkage Approach to Large-Scale Covariance Matrix Estimation and Implications for Functional Genomics," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-32, November.
    3. Rothman, Adam J. & Levina, Elizaveta & Zhu, Ji, 2009. "Generalized Thresholding of Large Covariance Matrices," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 104(485), pages 177-186.
    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. Chao, Shih-Kang & Härdle, Wolfgang K. & Yuan, Ming, 2021. "Factorisable Multitask Quantile Regression," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 794-816, August.
    2. Chen, Canyi & Xu, Wangli & Zhu, Liping, 2022. "Distributed estimation in heterogeneous reduced rank regression: With application to order determination in sufficient dimension reduction," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    3. Bernhard G. Bodmann & Martin Ehler & Manuel Gräf, 2018. "From Low- to High-Dimensional Moments Without Magic," Journal of Theoretical Probability, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 2167-2193, December.
    4. Ignas Gasparaviv{c}ius & Andrius Grigutis, 2024. "The Famous American Economist H. Markowitz and Mathematical Overview of his Portfolio Selection Theory," Papers 2402.10253, arXiv.org.

    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. Bailey, Natalia & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, L. Vanessa, 2019. "A multiple testing approach to the regularisation of large sample correlation matrices," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 208(2), pages 507-534.
    2. Ikeda, Yuki & Kubokawa, Tatsuya & Srivastava, Muni S., 2016. "Comparison of linear shrinkage estimators of a large covariance matrix in normal and non-normal distributions," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 95-108.
    3. Huang, Na & Fryzlewicz, Piotr, 2018. "NOVELIST estimator of large correlation and covariance matrices and their inverses," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89055, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Fisher, Thomas J. & Sun, Xiaoqian, 2011. "Improved Stein-type shrinkage estimators for the high-dimensional multivariate normal covariance matrix," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1909-1918, May.
    5. Na Huang & Piotr Fryzlewicz, 2019. "NOVELIST estimator of large correlation and covariance matrices and their inverses," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 28(3), pages 694-727, September.
    6. Hannart, Alexis & Naveau, Philippe, 2014. "Estimating high dimensional covariance matrices: A new look at the Gaussian conjugate framework," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 149-162.
    7. Fan, Jianqing & Liao, Yuan & Shi, Xiaofeng, 2015. "Risks of large portfolios," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 186(2), pages 367-387.
    8. Jianqing Fan & Xu Han, 2017. "Estimation of the false discovery proportion with unknown dependence," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 79(4), pages 1143-1164, September.
    9. Seunghwan Lee & Sang Cheol Kim & Donghyeon Yu, 2023. "An efficient GPU-parallel coordinate descent algorithm for sparse precision matrix estimation via scaled lasso," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 217-242, March.
    10. 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.
    11. Pan-Jun Kim & Nathan D Price, 2011. "Genetic Co-Occurrence Network across Sequenced Microbes," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Jingying Yang, 2024. "Element Aggregation for Estimation of High-Dimensional Covariance Matrices," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, March.
    13. Ledoit, Olivier & Wolf, Michael, 2017. "Numerical implementation of the QuEST function," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 199-223.
    14. Chen, Jia & Li, Degui & Linton, Oliver, 2019. "A new semiparametric estimation approach for large dynamic covariance matrices with multiple conditioning variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 212(1), pages 155-176.
    15. Lam, Clifford, 2020. "High-dimensional covariance matrix estimation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101667, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Gautam Sabnis & Debdeep Pati & Anirban Bhattacharya, 2019. "Compressed Covariance Estimation with Automated Dimension Learning," Sankhya A: The Indian Journal of Statistics, Springer;Indian Statistical Institute, vol. 81(2), pages 466-481, December.
    17. Paolo Giordani & Xiuyan Mun & Robert Kohn, 2012. "Efficient Estimation of Covariance Matrices using Posterior Mode Multiple Shrinkage," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 154-192, December.
    18. Yuki Ikeda & Tatsuya Kubokawa, 2015. "Linear Shrinkage Estimation of Large Covariance Matrices with Use of Factor Models," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-958, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    19. Bartosz Kaszuba, 2012. "Empirical Comparison of Robust Portfolios’ Investment Effects," The Review of Finance and Banking, Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania / Facultatea de Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse de Valori / Catedra de Finante, vol. 5(1), pages 047-061, June.
    20. Bergsteinsson, Hjörleifur G. & Møller, Jan Kloppenborg & Nystrup, Peter & Pálsson, Ólafur Pétur & Guericke, Daniela & Madsen, Henrik, 2021. "Heat load forecasting using adaptive temporal hierarchies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).

    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:jotpro:v:25:y:2012:i:3:d:10.1007_s10959-010-0338-z. 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.