In this article, we analyze the impact of weights constraints in portfolio theory using the seminal work of Jagannathan and Ma (2003). They show that solving the global minimum variance portfolio problem with some constraints on weights is equivalent to use a shrinkage estimate of the covariance...

This paper studies the persistence of mutual fund performance. Academic research often focuses on fund returns, sometimes adjusted for style and market cap biases. Because fund rating systems play a central role in the asset management industry, we consider another approach in this paper. Using...

A capitalization-weighted index is the most common way to gain access to broad equity market performance. These portfolios are generally concentrated in a few stocks and present some lack of diversification. In order to avoid this drawback or to simply diversify market exposure, alternative...

With the recent development of the European debt crisis, traditional index bond management has been severely called into question. We focus here on the risk issues raised by the classical market-capitalization weighting scheme. We propose an approach to properly measure sovereign credit risk in...

Portfolio construction and risk budgeting are the focus of many studies by academics and practitioners. In particular, diversification has spawn much interest and has been defined very differently. In this paper, we analyze a method to achieve portfolio diversification based on the decomposition...

To implement strategic asset allocation, we must determine risk and return expectations for the various asset classes. Starting from the paradigm that long-run asset returns are determined by the long-run fundamentals of the economy, a fair value approach to building expectations is crucial....

In this paper we propose a coordinate descent algorithm for solving high dimensional risk parity problems. We show that this algorithm converges and is very fast even with large covariance matrices (n500). Comparison with existing algorithms also shows that it is one of the most efficient...

The liquidity of exchange traded funds is of utmost importance for regulators, investors and providers. However, the study of liquidity is still in its infancy. In this work, we show some stylised facts of liquidity statistics (daily/intraday spread, trading volume, etc.). We also propose a new...

In this article, we consider smart beta indexing, which is an alternative to capitalization-weighted (CW) indexing. In particular, we focus on risk-based (RB) indexing, the aim of which is to capture the equity risk premium more effectively. To achieve this, portfolios are built which are more...

Fund selection is an important issue for investors. This topic has spawned abundant academic literature. Nonetheless, most of the time, these works concern only active management, whereas many investors, such as institutional investors, prefer to invest in index funds. The tools developed in the...