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An Explicit Option-Based Strategy That Outperforms Dollar Cost Averaging

Author

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  • STEVEN VANDUFFEL

    (Faculty of Economics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium)

  • ALES AHCAN

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploscad 17, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • LUC HENRARD

    (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong;
    Catholic University of Louvain, Place de l'Université 1, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)

  • MATEUSZ MAJ

    (Faculty of Economics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium)

Abstract

Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is a widely employed investment strategy in financial markets. At the same time it is also well documented that such gradual policy is sub-optimal from the point of view of risk averse decision makers with a fixed investment horizon T > 0. However, an explicit strategy that would be preferred by all risk averse decision makers did not yet appear in the literature. In this paper, we give a novel proof for the suboptimality of DCA when (log) returns are governed by Lévy processes and we construct a dominating strategy explicitly. The optimal strategy we propose is static and consists in purchasing a suitable portfolio of path-independent options. Next, we discuss a market governed by a Brownian motion in more detail. We show that the dominating strategy amounts to setting up a portfolio of power options. We provide evidence that the relative performance of DCA becomes worse in volatile markets, but also give some motivation to support its use. We also analyse DCA in presence of a minimal guarantee, explore the continuous setting and discuss the (non) uniqueness of the dominating strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Vanduffel & Ales Ahcan & Luc Henrard & Mateusz Maj, 2012. "An Explicit Option-Based Strategy That Outperforms Dollar Cost Averaging," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(02), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:ijtafx:v:15:y:2012:i:02:n:s0219024912500136
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219024912500136
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Ulbricht, 2014. "John Doe's Old-Age Provision: Dollar Cost Averaging and Time Diversification," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1376, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Rüschendorf Ludger & Wolf Viktor, 2015. "Cost-efficiency in multivariate Lévy models," Dependence Modeling, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, April.
    3. Xuejun Jin & Hongze Li & Bin Yu, 2023. "The day‐of‐the‐month effect and the performance of the dollar cost averaging strategy: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 797-815, April.
    4. Dirk Ulbricht, 2013. "Stock Investments for Old-Age: Less Return, More Risk, and Unexpected Timing," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1324, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Kirkby, J. Lars & Mitra, Sovan & Nguyen, Duy, 2020. "An analysis of dollar cost averaging and market timing investment strategies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(3), pages 1168-1186.
    6. Carole Bernard & Steven Vanduffel & Jiang Ye, 2018. "Optimal Portfolio Under State-Dependent Expected Utility," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Ewald, Christian-Oliver & Menkens, Olaf & Hung Marten Ting, Sai, 2013. "Asian and Australian options: A common perspective," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1001-1018.

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