Determining the optimal mix of assets in the context of a portfolio construction involves “smart” forecasts of asset returns as well as good estimates of the asset return variances and covariances. Typically, sample moments are used as best estimates of the population moments. Several...

We introduce a simulation-free method to model and forecast multiple asset returns and employ it to investigate the optimal ensemble of features to include when jointly predicting monthly stock and bond excess returns. Our approach builds on the Bayesian Dynamic Linear Models of West and...

This paper considers how an investor in the foreign exchange market can exploit predictive information by means of flexible Bayesian inference. Using a variety of different vector autoregressive models, the investor is able, each period, to revise past predictive mistakes and learn about...

Regularizing Bayesian predictive regressions provides a framework for prior sensitivity analysis via the regularization path. We jointly regularize both expectations and variance-covariance matrices using a pair of shrinkage priors. Our methodology applies directly to vector autoregressions...

In light of the power problems of statistical tests and undisciplined use of alpha-based statistics to compare models, this paper proposes a unified set of distance-based performance metrics, derived as the square root of the sum of squared alphas and squared standard errors. The Bayesian...

We propose a density combination approach featuring combination weights that depend on the past forecast performance of the individual models entering the combination through a utility-based objective function. We apply this model combination scheme to forecast stock returns, both at the...

We propose a unified set of distance-based performance metrics that address the power and extreme-error problems inherent in traditional measures for asset-pricing tests. From a Bayesian perspective, the distance metrics coherently incorporate both pricing errors and their standard errors....

Asset returns exhibit grouped heterogeneity, and a “one-size-fits-all” model has been elusive empirically. This paper proposes a Bayesian Clustering Model (BCM) combining Bayesian factor selection and panel tree for asset clustering. The Bayesian model marginal likelihood guides the tree...

The paper examines statistical and economic evidence of out-of-sample bond return predictability for a real-time Bayesian investor who learns about parameters, hidden states, and predictive models over time. We find some statistical evidence using information contained in forward rates. However,...

Sparse models, though long preferred and pursued by social scientists, can be ineffective or unstable relative to large models, for example, in economic predictions (Giannone et al., 2021). To achieve sparsity for economic interpretation while exploiting big data for superior empirical...