IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apmtfi/v3y1996i2p117-134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investment diversification and investment specialization and the assumed holding period

Author

Listed:
  • Haim Levy

Abstract

Optimum mean-variance (M-V) investment diversification strategies are analysed as a function of alternative investment horizons. For almost all possible one-period correlations across assets, it is found that as the investment horizon increases, the correlations approach zero and the M-V investor tends to specialize in one asset-the one with the lowest value Ai when, Ai ***, which implies in most cases specialization in the lowest mean asset. The lowest mean asset dominates because the multiperiod variance increases faster for assets with high mean returns and because of the possibility of borrowing and lending at the risk-free interest rate. This strategy is contrary to professional investment advice, which generally asserts that, for longer investment horizons, the investor can achieve diversification across time by investing primarily in equities which are characterized by relatively higher mean returns. Similar results hold when the M-V rule is relaxed and the investor maximizes expected utility (myopic) when portfolio revisions are allowed.

Suggested Citation

  • Haim Levy, 1996. "Investment diversification and investment specialization and the assumed holding period," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 117-134.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apmtfi:v:3:y:1996:i:2:p:117-134
    DOI: 10.1080/13504869600000006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504869600000006
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504869600000006?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. Merton, Robert C. & Samuelson, Paul A., 1974. "Fallacy of the log-normal approximation to optimal portfolio decision-making over many periods," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 67-94, May.
    2. Levy, Haim, 1973. "Stochastic Dominance Among Log-Normal Prospects," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 601-614, October.
    3. Hakansson, Nils H., 1971. "Capital Growth and the Mean-Variance Approach to Portfolio Selection," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 517-557, January.
    4. Paul A. Samuelson, 2011. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection by Dynamic Stochastic Programming," 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 31, pages 465-472, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Levy, Haim, 1973. "The Demand for Assets Under Conditions of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 79-96, March.
    6. Markowitz, Harry M, 1991. "Foundations of Portfolio Theory," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 469-477, June.
    7. J. Tobin, 1958. "Liquidity Preference as Behavior Towards Risk," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 25(2), pages 65-86.
    8. Haim Levy, 1972. "Portfolio Performance and the Investment Horizon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(12), pages 645-653, August.
    9. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    10. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-257, August.
    11. Meir I. Schneller, 1975. "Regression Analysis for Multiplicative Phenomena and its Implication for the Measurement of Investment Risk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 422-426, December.
    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. Levy, Haim & Schwarz, Gideon, 1997. "Correlation and the time interval over which the variables are measured," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1-2), pages 341-350.
    2. Haim Levy & Ilan Guttman & Isabel Tkatch, 2001. "Regression, Correlation, and the Time Interval: Additive-Multiplicative Framework," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(8), pages 1150-1159, August.
    3. Moshe Leshno & Haim Levy, 2002. "Preferred by "All" and Preferred by "Most" Decision Makers: Almost Stochastic Dominance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(8), pages 1074-1085, August.
    4. Manuel Tarrazo, 2022. "Roy’s (1952) Revisited in Today’s Investing Contexts," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, August.

    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. Sonntag, Dominik, 2018. "Die Theorie der fairen geometrischen Rendite [The Theory of Fair Geometric Returns]," MPRA Paper 87082, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Levy, Haim & Levy, Moshe, 2021. "Stocks versus bonds for the long run when a riskless asset is available," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    3. Merton, Robert C., 1993. "On the microeconomic theory of investment under uncertainty," Handbook of Mathematical Economics, in: K. J. Arrow & M.D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Mathematical Economics, edition 4, volume 2, chapter 13, pages 601-669, Elsevier.
    4. David S. Jones & V. Vance Roley, 1981. "Bliss Points in Mean-Variance Portfolio Models," NBER Technical Working Papers 0019, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Bilel Jarraya & Abdelfettah Bouri, 2013. "A Theoretical Assessment on Optimal Asset Allocations in Insurance Industry," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 2(4), pages 30-44, October.
    6. John Y. Campbell, 2000. "Asset Pricing at the Millennium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1515-1567, August.
    7. David Schröder, 2013. "Asset allocation in private wealth management: Theory versus practice," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(3), pages 162-181, June.
    8. Levy, Haim & Schwarz, Gideon, 1997. "Correlation and the time interval over which the variables are measured," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1-2), pages 341-350.
    9. Levy, Haim & Levy, Moshe, 2021. "The cost of diversification over time, and a simple way to improve target-date funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Michael Dempsey, 2015. "Stock Markets, Investments and Corporate Behavior:A Conceptual Framework of Understanding," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number p1007, August.
    11. Stanley R. Pliska, 1984. "A Stochastic Calculus Model of Continuous Trading: Optimal Portfolios," Discussion Papers 608, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    12. Kathleen Walsh, 2015. "The investment horizon and asset pricing models," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(2), pages 277-294, May.
    13. Penikas, Henry, 2010. "Copula-Models in Foreign Exchange Risk-Management of a Bank," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 17(1), pages 62-87.
    14. Fu, Chenpeng & Lari-Lavassani, Ali & Li, Xun, 2010. "Dynamic mean-variance portfolio selection with borrowing constraint," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 312-319, January.
    15. Wang, Yuanrong & Aste, Tomaso, 2023. "Dynamic portfolio optimization with inverse covariance clustering," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117701, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Lin, Wen-chang & Lu, Jin-ray, 2012. "Risky asset allocation and consumption rule in the presence of background risk and insurance markets," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 150-158.
    17. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Ludwig, Alexander & Sommer, Mathias, 2005. "Aging and asset prices," Papers 07-29, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    18. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1980. "The Effect of Shifting Wealth Ownership on the Term Structure of Interest Rates," NBER Working Papers 0239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Michael W. Brandt & Amit Goyal & Pedro Santa-Clara & Jonathan R. Stroud, 2005. "A Simulation Approach to Dynamic Portfolio Choice with an Application to Learning About Return Predictability," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 831-873.
    20. 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.

    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:taf:apmtfi:v:3:y:1996:i:2:p:117-134. 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 Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAMF20 .

    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.