We propose a portfolio allocation method based on risk factor budgeting using convex Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF). Unlike classical factor analysis, PCA, or ICA, NMF ensures positive factor loadings to obtain interpretable long-only portfolios. As the NMF factors represent separate...

We investigate the dynamics of the relationship between returns and extreme downside risk in different states of the market by combining the framework of Bali, Demirtas, and Levy (2009) with a Markov switching mechanism. We show that the risk-return relationship identified by Bali, Demirtas, and...

This report analyzes the difference between mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of target insurers in the US life and non-life insurance sectors. We first document M&A transactions in the US insurance market between 1990 and 2022 and select the M&A transactions related to US target insurers. We then...

A model of portfolio return dynamics is considered in which the price of risk is permitted to be heterogeneous. In doing this, a novel method is proposed that delivers improved out-of-sample forecasts of portfolio returns. The main innovation is the use of a set of predictors that account for...

Dynamic economic models make predictions about impulse responses that characterize how macroeconomic processes respond to alternative shocks over different horizons. From the perspective of asset pricing, impulse responses quantify the exposure of macroeconomic processes and other cash flows to...

Dynamic economic models make predictions about impulse responses that characterize how macroeconomic processes respond to alternative shocks over different horizons. From the perspective of asset pricing, impulse responses quantify the exposure of macroeconomic processes and other cash flows to...

Classical asset allocation methods have assumed that the distribution of asset returns is smooth, well behaved with stable statistical moments over time. The distribution is assumed to have constant moments with e.g., Gaussian distribution that can be conveniently parameterised by the first two...

In this paper, we propose a general data-driven framework that unifies the valuation and risk measurement of financial derivatives, which is especially useful in markets with thinly-traded derivatives. We first extract the empirical characteristic function from market-observable time series for...

We propose a bootstrap-based robust high-confidence level upper bound (Robust H-CLUB) for assessing the risks of large portfolios. The proposed approach exploits rank-based and quantile-based estimators, and can be viewed as a robust extension of the H-CLUB method (Fan et al., 2015). Such an...

This paper suggests a method of estimation of the implied volatility smile uncertainty of the observed options prices due to future risk-free rate uncertainty. The purpose is to quantify the range of uncertainty under different scenarios.We consider the setting where both the implied volatility...