We outline how to use historical analogies or macroeconomic models to generate inputs for mean-variance optimizations. Additionally, we present an alternative framework for thinking about "efficient" portfolios. Our framework focuses on selecting from amongst return distributions instead of...

Present market instabilities have prompted great interest on the characteristics of specific portfolios such as minimum variance and equally- weighted risk contribution portfolios as these portfolios do not rely on the estimate of expected returns. Indeed, in turmoil periods traditional market...