IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2304.14098.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Optimal Covariance Cleaning for Heavy-Tailed Distributions: Insights from Information Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Bongiorno
  • Marco Berritta

Abstract

In optimal covariance cleaning theory, minimizing the Frobenius norm between the true population covariance matrix and a rotational invariant estimator is a key step. This estimator can be obtained asymptotically for large covariance matrices, without knowledge of the true covariance matrix. In this study, we demonstrate that this minimization problem is equivalent to minimizing the loss of information between the true population covariance and the rotational invariant estimator for normal multivariate variables. However, for Student's t distributions, the minimal Frobenius norm does not necessarily minimize the information loss in finite-sized matrices. Nevertheless, such deviations vanish in the asymptotic regime of large matrices, which might extend the applicability of random matrix theory results to Student's t distributions. These distributions are characterized by heavy tails and are frequently encountered in real-world applications such as finance, turbulence, or nuclear physics. Therefore, our work establishes a connection between statistical random matrix theory and estimation theory in physics, which is predominantly based on information theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Bongiorno & Marco Berritta, 2023. "Optimal Covariance Cleaning for Heavy-Tailed Distributions: Insights from Information Theory," Papers 2304.14098, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2304.14098
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.14098
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Thurner & J. Doyne Farmer & John Geanakoplos, 2012. "Leverage causes fat tails and clustered volatility," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 695-707, February.
    2. Giulio Biroli & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud & Marc Potters, 2007. "The Student ensemble of correlation matrices: eigenvalue spectrum and Kullback-Leibler entropy," Papers 0710.0802, arXiv.org.
    3. Joel Bun & Romain Allez & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud & Marc Potters, 2015. "Rotational invariant estimator for general noisy matrices," Papers 1502.06736, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2016.
    4. Fabrizio Lillo & Rosario N. Mantegna, 2001. "Power law relaxation in a complex system: Omori law after a financial market crash," Papers cond-mat/0111257, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2003.
    5. D. Sornette & J. V. Andersen & P. Simonetti, 2000. "Portfolio Theory For "Fat Tails"," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(03), pages 523-535.
    6. Michele Tumminello & Fabrizio Lillo & Rosario Nunzio Mantegna, 2007. "Kullback-Leibler distance as a measure of the information filtered from multivariate data," Papers 0706.0168, arXiv.org.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jovanovic, Franck & Mantegna, Rosario N. & Schinckus, Christophe, 2019. "When financial economics influences physics: The role of Econophysics," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Tumminello, Michele & Lillo, Fabrizio & Mantegna, Rosario N., 2010. "Correlation, hierarchies, and networks in financial markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 40-58, July.
    3. Gautier Marti & Frank Nielsen & Miko{l}aj Bi'nkowski & Philippe Donnat, 2017. "A review of two decades of correlations, hierarchies, networks and clustering in financial markets," Papers 1703.00485, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2020.
    4. Sandoval, Leonidas & Franca, Italo De Paula, 2012. "Correlation of financial markets in times of crisis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(1), pages 187-208.
    5. Contreras-Reyes, Javier E., 2014. "Asymptotic form of the Kullback–Leibler divergence for multivariate asymmetric heavy-tailed distributions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 395(C), pages 200-208.
    6. Pichler, Anton & Poledna, Sebastian & Thurner, Stefan, 2021. "Systemic risk-efficient asset allocations: Minimization of systemic risk as a network optimization problem," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    7. Poledna, Sebastian & Thurner, Stefan & Farmer, J. Doyne & Geanakoplos, John, 2014. "Leverage-induced systemic risk under Basle II and other credit risk policies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 199-212.
    8. Scheffknecht, Lukas & Geiger, Felix, 2011. "A behavioral macroeconomic model with endogenous boom-bust cycles and leverage dynamcis," FZID Discussion Papers 37-2011, University of Hohenheim, Center for Research on Innovation and Services (FZID).
    9. Karlis, Alexandros & Galanis, Girogos & Terovitis, Spyridon & Turner, Matthew, 2017. "Heterogeneity and Clustering of Defaults," Economic Research Papers 270011, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    10. Y. Malevergne & D. Sornette, 2003. "Testing the Gaussian copula hypothesis for financial assets dependences," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 231-250.
    11. Sandoval, Leonidas, 2014. "To lag or not to lag? How to compare indices of stock markets that operate on different times," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 403(C), pages 227-243.
    12. John Geanakoplos, 2022. "Leverage Cycle Theory of Economic Crises and Booms," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2370, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    13. Antoaneta Sergueiva, 2013. "Systemic Risk Identification, Modelling, Analysis, and Monitoring: An Integrated Approach," Papers 1310.6486, arXiv.org.
    14. R'emy Chicheportiche & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2012. "The fine-structure of volatility feedback I: multi-scale self-reflexivity," Papers 1206.2153, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2013.
    15. Fischer, Thomas & Riedler, Jesper, 2014. "Prices, debt and market structure in an agent-based model of the financial market," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 95-120.
    16. X. F. Jiang & T. T. Chen & B. Zheng, 2013. "Time-reversal asymmetry in financial systems," Papers 1308.0669, arXiv.org.
    17. Selçuk, Faruk & Gençay, Ramazan, 2006. "Intraday dynamics of stock market returns and volatility," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 367(C), pages 375-387.
    18. Marc van Kralingen & Diego Garlaschelli & Karolina Scholtus & Iman van Lelyveld, 2020. "Crowded trades, market clustering, and price instability," Papers 2002.03319, arXiv.org.
    19. Nicoló Musmeci & Tomaso Aste & T Di Matteo, 2015. "Relation between Financial Market Structure and the Real Economy: Comparison between Clustering Methods," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-24, March.
    20. Pierre-Alain Reigneron & Romain Allez & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2010. "Principal Regression Analysis and the index leverage effect," Papers 1011.5810, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2011.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:arx:papers:2304.14098. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.