The foundation of popular approaches to portfolio construction and performance measurement lies in the mean-variance framework of Markowitz (1952, 1959). However, the suitability of such approaches in practice is questionable in light of considerable evidence of non-normalities in returns. This...

The multivariate normality of stock returns is a crucial assumption in many tests of assets pricing models. While past Australian research has examined the univariate normality of returns, univariate test statistics are unreliable for testing multivariate normality since they ignore the...

Canonical valuation is a nonparametric method for valuing derivatives proposed by M. Stutzer (1996). Although the properties of canonical estimates of option price and hedge ratio have been studied in simulation settings, applications of the methodology to traded derivative data are rare. This...