We propose a performance measure that generalizes the Sharpe ratio. The new performance measure is monotone with respect to stochastic dominance and consistently accounts for mean, variance and higher moments of the return distribution. It is equivalent to the Sharpe ratio if returns are...

The paper discusses the use of statistical methods in the comparison of investment fund performance indicators. The analysis is based on the robust statistics proposed by Ledoit and Wolf (2008), for the pairwise comparison of funds and two generalizations for sets of multiple investment funds....

Country indices as represented by iShares exhibit non-normal return distributions with both skewness and kurtosis. Davidson and Duclos (2000) and Memmel (2003) provide procedures for determining the statistical significance of stochastic dominance measures and the Sharpe Ratio, respectively....

We consider the portfolio selection problem in the accumulation phase of a defined contribution pension scheme in continuous time, and compare the mean-variance and the expected utility maximization approaches. Using the embedding technique pioneered by Zhou and Li (2000) we first find the...

We consider the portfolio selection problem in the accumulation phase of a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme. We solve the mean-variance portfolio selection problem using the embedding technique pioneered by Zhou and Li (2000) and show that it is equivalent to a target-based optimization...

In this paper, we provide evidence that the mean-variance-ratio (MVR) test is superior to the Sharpe ratio (SR) test by applying both tests to analyze the performance of commodity trading advisors (CTAs). Our findings show that while the SR test concludes that most of the CTA funds being...

This study examines the performance of fifty global exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) traded on US stock exchanges. Specifically, it refers to the period following the end of quantitative easing, which took place in 2014. Therefore, the data, on which the study is based, refer to the period from...

In the context of modern portfolio theory, we compare the out-of-sample performance of 8 investment strategies which are based on statistical methods with the out-of-sample performance of a family of trivial strategies. A wide range of approaches is considered in this work, including the...

Assuming a non-satiable risk-averse investor, the standard approach to portfolio selection suggests discarding of all ineffi cient investment in terms of mean return and its standard deviation ratio within its fi rst step. However, in literature we can fi nd many alternative dispersion and risk...

We investigate whether sovereign bond holdings of European banks are determined by a risk-return trade-off. Using data between 2011 and 2018 for 75 European banks, we confirm that banks exhibited risk-taking behavior during the sovereign debt crisis, e.g., due to moral suasion. In the period...