Risk-based efficient frontier workbook updated

I have expanded the risk-based efficient frontier workbook to correct a few superfluous cells and to accommodate 50 assets. Please note: If you are making investment decisions, consider what you paid for this workbook and treat it as a toy. Its results do not constitute investment advice.

Visualize Portfolio Risk

This application is interactive. Be patient as it loads. Example: Unconstrained Maximum Sharpe Ratio portfolio Notice the Contributions to Risk are proportionate to the Contributions to Return Example: Unconstrained Minimum Variance portfolio Notice the Weights and Contributions to Risk are Equal Example: Risk Parity portfolio Contributions to Risk are equal Assumptions Correlation matrix Definitions Weight:… Continue reading Visualize Portfolio Risk

The Low Hanging Fruit of Low Volatility Backtests

Ed. Originally written in 2011. Published in 2013 “Look ma, I have skill!” An idea that would have been regarded as heresy in the 1990s has gained acceptance and respectability: the idea that investors are not rewarded for risk, systematic or otherwise. Thanks to the long-term performance dominance of low volatility assets over the past… Continue reading The Low Hanging Fruit of Low Volatility Backtests

Power-Assisted Diversification: A Goldilocks Approach to Benchmark Diversification

TMA: I am pleased to introduce Dorian (Randy) Young as a contributor. Randy is an independent investment professional living in the Bay Area. Power-Assisted Diversification: Not Too Concentrated and Not Too Diversified Dorian (Randy) Young, CFA, CAIA A number of years ago, as someone proficient with benchmark methodologies, I was asked by an investment measurement… Continue reading Power-Assisted Diversification: A Goldilocks Approach to Benchmark Diversification

The Risk Parity Tower of Babel

Update, Nov. 7 2012: Evidently the interviewer was Bob Litterman, renowned in several areas of quantitative finance, especially for the Black-Litterman model. The first several times I heard of or read about risk parity I was puzzled. The media, it seemed, had distilled descriptions of risk parity into some variation on “a leveraged bond portfolio”… Continue reading The Risk Parity Tower of Babel

A reader asks: Can a risk parity portfolio have short positions?

Many of this site’s visitors are interested in learning about risk parity, especially how to obtain risk parity weights using Excel. The PortfolioWizards Risk Parity Excel workbook is easily the most popular download on the site. Recently a hedge fund manager contacted me who had been playing with the risk parity workbook. He asked whether… Continue reading A reader asks: Can a risk parity portfolio have short positions?

Why Rational Investors Hold (Some) Volatile Assets

  For several years I managed quantitative equity portfolios at Freeman Investment Management. The firm had been a pioneer in creating low volatility strategies, both long-only and long-short. In addition to managing low volatility portfolios, at Freeman we had been advocating using volatility indices instead of style indices, both as performance benchmarks and as explanatory… Continue reading Why Rational Investors Hold (Some) Volatile Assets

Tom Anichini Joins GuidedChoice

  With as much fun as I’ve been having consulting and blogging for PortfolioWizards, I have decided to accept an offer to join GuidedChoice, a robo-advisor located in San Diego. GuidedChoice has an accomplished team of professionals including Sherrie Grabot, Harry Markowitz, Ming Yee Wang, and Ganlin Xu. They have worked together for over a… Continue reading Tom Anichini Joins GuidedChoice

Alternative Time Windows for Evaluating Performance

  Dynamic Trading Rules: Change the Time Window and a Different Picture Emerges Further examining a 200-day Moving Average (200MA) strategy for mitigating downside risk, I was recently examining how the picture changes when you alter the time window for assessing these strategies. Below is a scatterplot of a dynamically managed strategy using 200MA (vertical… Continue reading Alternative Time Windows for Evaluating Performance