The paper shows how a particular optimization heuristic, called threshold accepting, can be successfully used to solve complex portfolio choice problems.

Constraints on downside risk, measured by shortfall probability, expected shortfall, semi-variance etc., lead to optimal asset allocations which differ from the meanvariance optimum. The resulting optimization problem can become quite complex as it exhibits multiple local extrema and...

In this paper we investigate the performance of the threshold accepting heuristic for the index tracking problem. The index tracking problem consists in minimizing the tracking error between a portfolio and a benchmark. The objective is to replicate the performance of a given index upon the...

The assessment of models of financial market behaviour requires evaluation tools. When complexity hinders a direct estimation approach, e.g., for agent based microsimulation models or multifractal models, simulation based estimators might provide an alternative. In order to apply such...

We investigate portfolio selection with alternative objective functions in a distributed computing environment. In particular, we optimise a portfolio's 'Omega' which is the ratio of two partial moments of the returns distributions. Since finding optimal portfolios under such performance...

In practical portfolio choice models risk is often defined as VaR, expected short-fall, maximum loss, Omega function, etc. and is computed from simulated future scenarios of the portfolio value. It is well known that the minimization of these functions can not, in general, be performed with...

There is a large number of optimisation problems in theoretical and applied finance that are difficult to solve as they exhibit multiple local optima or are not ‘well- behaved’ in other ways (eg, discontinuities in the objective function). One way to deal with such problems is to adjust and...

We investigate the performance of the threshold accepting heuristic for the index tracking problem. The index tracking problem consists in minimizing the tracking error between a portfolio and a benchmark. The objective is to replicate the performance of a given index upon the condition that the...

The Nelson-Siegel-Svensson model is widely-used for modelling the yield curve, yet many authors have reported ‘numerical difficulties' when calibrating the model. We argue that the problem is twofold: firstly, the optimisation problem is not convex and has multiple local optima. Hence standard...

Hedge funds offer desirable risk-return profiles; but we also find high management fees, lack of transparency and worse, very limited liquidity (they are often closed to new investors and disinvestment fees can be prohibitive). This creates an incentive to replicate the attractive features of...