基於SEC之要求，越來越多美國金融機構於其財務報表附註中揭露金融交易資產之風險值；然而計算風險值涉及到許多假設，於是導致過去部分文獻對於風險值資訊揭露之可靠性產生質疑。本研究以風險值之揭露對於報表使用者之資訊價值作為研究課題；為求與附註揭露之風險值資訊比較，本研究以公司帳列之金融交易資產(Trading Assets)、金融交易收入(Trading Revenue)為基礎，利用蒙地卡羅模擬法模擬帳列金融交易資產於次期可能產生之最大潛在損失，並且透過OLS regression及panel data model探討： (1)風險值及金融交易資產潛在可能損失是否可以預測次期金融交易收入波動 (2)風險值與金融交易資產潛在可能損失資訊之提供是否影響次期股票交易量 (3)風險值與金融交易資產潛在可能損失資訊是否可以有效預測次期股價報酬 率變異。 實證結果顯示，風險值之揭露與金融交易資產潛在可能損失之資訊對於預計次期金融交易收入之波動與股價報酬率變異均呈現顯著正相關；易言之，上述兩種資訊之揭露均提供增額之資訊價值。惟另方面，風險值之揭露與金融交易資產潛在可能損失之資訊卻與次期股票交易量呈正相關，也就是說上述兩種資訊的揭露反而會造成投資人降低長期投資持有的意願。 / Financial institutions in the United States are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose their Value at Risk (VaR) in the footnotes of the financial statements. Over the years, VaR has been used by institutional investors, industry consultants, and regulators as one of the key measures of market risk. However, there are a number of approaches to calculating VaR and some of them may involve various statistical models and assumptions. Due to the fact that different models and assumptions may be used, the VaR numbers produced by different institutions are difficult to compare with one another. The usefulness of these numbers is therefore decreased. This thesis examines the usefulness of disclosures of VaR information. In order to compare with VaR disclosures, the implied potential maximum losses of trading assets are simulated by using Monte Carlo simulation. We then employ the OLS regression and the panel data models to investigate the following research questions: (1)whether VaR and implied potential maximum losses of trading assets disclosed by financial institutions are instrumental in predicting the variability of trading revenue for the next quarter; (2)whether VaR and implied potential maximum losses of trading assets disclosed by financial institutions affect investors' investing decision; (3)how useful are VaR and implied potential maximum losses of trading assets in predicting the volatility of daily stock return next quarter. The empirical results indicate that VaR and implied potential maximum losses of trading assets are significantly related to the variability of trading revenue and the volatility of daily stock returns next quarter. This evidence suggests that both types of disclosures provide incremental information on predicting the variability of trading revenue and investment risk in the future. Nevertheless, we also find that both VaR disclosures and implied potential maximum losses of trading assets are positively associated with future average stock trading volume, implying that investors tend to trade stock more frequently when the market risk information is disclosed.

Asset allocation is the most influential factor driving investment performance. While researchers have made substantial progress in the field of asset allocation since the introduction of mean-variance framework by Markowitz, there is little agreement about appropriate portfolio choice for multi-period long horizon investors. Nowhere this is more evident than trustees of retirement plans choosing different asset allocation strategies as default investment options for their members. This doctoral dissertation consists of four essays each of which explores either a novel or an unresolved issue in the area of asset allocation for individual retirement plan participants. The goal of the thesis is to provide greater insight into the subject of portfolio choice in retirement plans and advance scholarship in this field. The first study evaluates different constant mix or fixed weight asset allocation strategies and comments on their relative appeal as default investment options. In contrast to past research which deals mostly with theoretical or hypothetical models of asset allocation, we investigate asset allocation strategies that are actually used as default investment options by superannuation funds in Australia. We find that strategies with moderate allocation to stocks are consistently outperformed in terms of upside potential of exceeding the participant’s wealth accumulation target as well as downside risk of falling below that target by very aggressive strategies whose allocation to stocks approach 100%. The risk of extremely adverse wealth outcomes for plan participants does not appear to be very sensitive to asset allocation. Drawing on the evidence of the previous study, the second essay explores possible solutions to the well known problem of gender inequality in retirement investment outcomes. Using non-parametric stochastic simulation, we simulate iv and compare the retirement wealth outcomes for a hypothetical female and male worker under different assumptions about breaks in employment, superannuation contribution rates, and asset allocation strategies. We argue that modest changes in contribution and asset allocation strategy for the female plan participant are necessary to ensure an equitable wealth outcome in retirement. The findings provide strong evidence against gender-neutral default contribution and asset allocation policy currently institutionalized in Australia and other countries. In the third study we examine the efficacy of lifecycle asset allocation models which allocate aggressively to risky asset classes when the employee participants are young and gradually switch to more conservative asset classes as they approach retirement. We show that the conventional lifecycle strategies make a costly mistake by ignoring the change in portfolio size over time as a critical input in the asset allocation decision. Due to this portfolio size effect, which has hitherto remained unexplored in literature, the terminal value of accumulation in retirement account is critically dependent on the asset allocation strategy adopted by the participant in later years relative to early years. The final essay extends the findings of the previous chapter by proposing an alternative approach to lifecycle asset allocation which incorporates performance feedback. We demonstrate that strategies that dynamically alter allocation between growth and conservative asset classes at different points on the investment horizon based on cumulative portfolio performance relative to a set target generally result in superior wealth outcomes compared to those of conventional lifecycle strategies. The dynamic allocation strategy exhibits clear second-degree stochastic dominance over conventional strategies which switch assets in a deterministic manner as well as balanced diversified strategies.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:51:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 98333.pdf.jpg: 13860 bytes, checksum: 411f2e503bdd3f85174e0db0b4bd251c (MD5) 98333.pdf: 711485 bytes, checksum: 410792964fe8e1c5a1db006b3e7fa833 (MD5) 98333.pdf.txt: 212638 bytes, checksum: 847f0564ff4a3061300b1a06e613bfd4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003-03-12T00:00:00Z / Este estudo faz uma revisão das origens do VaR, bem como dos conceitos e teorias que o fundamentam, e sua aplicabilidade aos fundos de pensão. Descreve as principais metodologias de cálculo e as situações nas quais o uso de cada uma é mais adequado. Revisa a literatura internacional acerca do uso do VaR como medida de risco pelos fundos de pensão. A seguir faz a previsão do VaR para as carteiras reais de três fundos de pensão brasileiros com três metodologias distintas: paramétrica, simulação histórica e simulação de Monte Carlo, esta última com duas suposições distintas para a distribuição dos retornos dos fatores de risco (normal e histórica). A partir disso, realiza um teste qualitativo, através da comparação do número de perdas efetivas realizadas pelas carteiras dos três fundos de pensão com o número de perdas correspondente admitido para os diferentes níveis de confiança utilizados no cálculo do VaR. O trabalho não encontra evidências de superioridade de nenhuma das metodologias de cálculo, sendo que todas elas superestimaram as perdas verificadas na prática (o VaR foi excedido menos vezes do que o esperado). / This study summarizes the theory underlying Value at risk, including its history, concepts and applicability to pension funds. It describes the main approaches in computing VaR, as well as the situations in which one approach is more appropriate than the other. It also revises the international literature about the use of VaR as a risk measure by pension funds. After that, VaR is computed for real portfolios of three Brazilian pension funds, applying three methods: analytical, historical simulation and Monte Carlo simulation, the last one with two different assumptions about risk factor returns’ distributions (normal and historical). Following VaR computation, a qualitative test is performed, by comparing the actual losses faced by the three pension funds’ portfolios with the associated number of losses, given the confidence level. Evidence about superiority of some of the approaches has not been found, and all of them have overestimated real losses (the VaR measure was exceeded less often than expected).

Orientador: Roberto Andreani / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Matematica, Estatistica e Computação Cientifica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T15:35:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Magro_RogerioCorrea_M.pdf: 1309841 bytes, checksum: 3935050b45cf1bf5bbba46ac64603d72 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Dado um capital C e n opções de investimento (ativos), o problema de seleção de portfolio consiste em aplicar C da melhor forma possivel para um determinado perfil de investidor. Visto que, em geral, os valores futuros destes ativos não são conhecidos, a questão fundamental a ser respondida e: Como mensurar a incerteza? No presente trabalho são apresentadas tres medidas de risco: O modelo de Markowitz, o Value-at-Risk (VaR) e o Conditional Value-At-Risk (CVaR). Defendemos que, sob o ponto de vista teorico, o Valor em Risco (VaR) e a melhor dentre as tres medidas. O motivo de tal escolha deve-se ao fato de que, para o VaR, podemos controlar a influencia que os cenários catastroficos possuem sobre nossas decisões. Em contrapartida, o processo computacional envolvido na escolha de um portfolio ótimo sob a metodologia VaR apresenta-se notadamente mais custoso do que aqueles envolvidos nos calculos das demais medidas consideradas. Dessa forma, nosso objetivo e tentar explorar essa vantagem computacional do Modelo de Markowitz e do CVaR no sentido de tentar aproximar suas decisões aquelas apontadas pela medida eleita. Para tal, consideraremos soluções VaR em seu sentido original (utilizando apenas o parametro de confiabilidade ao buscar portfolios otimos) e soluções com controle de perda (impondo uma cota superior para a perda esperada) / Abstract: Given a capital C and n investment options (assets), the problem of portfolio selection consists of applying C in the best possible way for a certain investor profile. Because, in general, the future values of these assets are unknown, the fundamental question to be answered is: How to measure the uncertainty? In the present work three risk measures are presented: The Markowitz¿s model, the Value-at-Risk (VaR) and the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). We defended that, under the theoretical point of view, the Value in Risk (VaR) is the best amongst the three measures. The reason of such a choice is due to the fact that, for VaR, we can control the influence that the catastrophic sceneries possess about our decisions. In the other hand, the computational process involved in the choice of a optimal portfolio under the VaR methodology comes notedly more expensive than those involved in the calculations of the other considered measures. In that way, our objective is to try to explore that computational advantage of the Markowitz¿s Model and of CVaR in the sense of trying to approach its decisions the those pointed by the elect measure. For such, we will consider VaR solutions in its original sense (just using the confidence level parameter when looking for optimal portfolios) and solutions with loss control (imposing a superior quota for the expected loss) / Mestrado / Otimização / Mestre em Matemática Aplicada

[pt] A dissertação trata da comparação de dois métodos de estimação para modelos de séries temporais com volatilidade estocástica. Um dos métodos é baseado em inferência Bayesiana e depende de simulações enquanto o outro utiliza máxima verossimilhança para o processo de estimação. A comparação é feita tanto com séries temporais artificialmente geradas como também com séries financeiras reais. O objetivo é mostrar que os dois métodos apresentam resultados semelhantes, sendo que o segundo método é significativamente mais rápido do que o primeiro.

<p>Optimization under uncertainty is the field of optimization where the data or the optimization model itself has uncertainties associated with it. Such problems are more commonly referred to as stochastic optimization problems. These problems capture the broad idea of making optimal decisions under uncertainty. An important class of these stochastic optimization problems is chance-constrained optimization problems, where the decision maker seeks to choose the best decision such that the probability of violating a set of uncertainty constraints is within a predefined probabilistic threshold risk level. Such stochastic optimization problems have found a lot of interest in the service industry as the service providers need to satisfy a minimum service level agreement (SLA) with their customers. Satisfying SLA in the presence of uncertainty in the form of probabilistic failure of infrastructure poses many interesting and challenging questions. In this thesis, we answer a few of these questions.</p> <p>We first explore the problem of quantifying uncertainties that adversely impact the service provider's infrastructure, thereby hurting the service level agreements. In particular we address the probability quantification problem, where given an uncertainty set, the goal is to quantify the probability of an event, on which the optimal value of an optimization problem exceeds a predefined threshold value. The novel techniques we propose, use and develop ideas from diverse literatures such as mixed integer nonlinear program, chance-constrained programming, approximate sampling and counting techniques, and large deviation bounds. Our approach yields the first polynomial time approximation scheme for the specific probability quantification problem we consider. </p> <p>Our next work is inspired by the ideas of risk averse decision making. Here, we focus on studying the problem of minimizing risk functions. As a special case we also explore the problem of minimizing the Value at Risk (VaR), which is a well know non-convex problem. For more than a decade, the well-known, best convex approximation to this problem has been obtained by minimizing the Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR). We proposed a new two-stage model which formulates these risk functions, which eventually leads to a bilinear optimization problem, a special case of which is the VaR minimization problem. We come up with enhancements to this bilinear formulation and use convexification techniques to obtain tighter lower and upper convex approximations to the problem. We also find that the approximation obtained by CVaR minimization is a special case of our method. The overestimates we construct help us to develop tighter convex inner approximations for the chance constraint optimization problems.</p>

Portfolio selection has a long tradition in financial economics and plays an integral role in investment management. Portfolio selection provides the framework to determine optimal portfolio choice from a universe of available investments. However, the asset weightings from portfolio selection are optimal only if the empirical characteristics of asset returns do not violate the portfolio selection model assumptions. This thesis explores the empirical characteristics of traditional assets and hedge fund returns and examines their effects on the assumptions of linearity-in-the-mean testing and portfolio selection. The encompassing theme of this thesis is the empirical interplay between traditional assets and hedge fund returns. Despite the paucity of hedge fund research, pension funds continue to increase their portfolio allocations to global hedge funds in an effort to pursue higher risk-adjusted returns. This thesis presents three empirical studies which provide positive insights into the relationships between traditional assets and hedge fund returns. The first two empirical studies examine an emerging body of literature which suggests that the relationship between traditional assets and hedge fund returns is non-linear. For mean-variance investors, non-linear asset returns are problematic as they do not satisfy the assumption of linearity required for the covariance matrix in portfolio selection. To examine the linearity assumption as it relates to a mean-variance investor, a hypothesis test approach is employed which investigates the linearity-in-the-mean of traditional assets and hedge funds. The findings from the first two empirical studies reveal that conventional linearity-in-the-mean tests incorrectly conclude that asset returns are nonlinear. We demonstrate that the empirical characteristics of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in asset returns are the primary sources of test mis-specification in these linearity-in-the-mean hypothesis tests. To address this problem, an innovative approach is proposed to control heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in the underlying tests and it is shown that traditional assets and hedge funds are indeed linear-in-the-mean. The third and final study of this thesis explores traditional assets and hedge funds in a portfolio selection framework. Following the theme of the previous two studies, the effects of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation are examined in the portfolio selection context. The characteristics of serial correlation in bond and hedge fund returns are shown to cause a downward bias in the second sample moment. This thesis proposes two methods to control for this effect and it is shown that autocorrelation induces an overallocation to bonds and hedge funds. Whilst heteroscedasticity cannot be directly examined in portfolio selection, empirical evidence suggests that heteroscedastic events (such as those that occurred in August 1998) translate into the empirical feature known as tail-risk. The effects of tail-risk are examined by comparing the portfolio decisions of mean-variance analysis (MVA) versus mean-conditional value at risk (M-CVaR) investors. The findings reveal that the volatility of returns in a MVA portfolio decreases when hedge funds are included in the investment opportunity set. However, the reduction in the volatility of portfolio returns comes at a cost of undesirable third and fourth moments. Furthermore, it is shown that investors with M-CVaR preferences exhibit a decreasing demand for hedge funds as their aversion for tail-risk increases. The results of the thesis highlight the sensitivities of linearity tests and portfolio selection to the empirical features of heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and tail-risk. This thesis contributes to the literature by providing refinements to these frameworks which allow improved inferences to be made when hedge funds are examined in linearity and portfolio selection settings.

風險值大多是在假設資產報酬為常態分配下計算而得的，但是這個假設與實際的資產報酬分配不一致，因為很多研究者都發現實際的資產報酬分配都有厚尾的現象，也就是極端事件的發生機率遠比常態假設要來的高，因此利用常態假設來計算風險值對於真實損失的衡量不是很恰當。 針對這個問題，本論文以歷史模擬法、變異數-共變異數法、混合常態模型來模擬報酬率的分配，並依給定的信賴水準估算出風險值，其中混合常態模型的參數是利用準貝式最大概似估計法及EM演算法來估計；然後利用三種風險值的評量方法：回溯測試、前向測試與二項檢定，來評判三種估算風險值方法的優劣。 經由實證結果發現： 1.報酬率分配在左尾臨界機率1％有較明顯厚尾的現象。 2.利用混合常態分配來模擬報酬率分配會比另外兩種方法更能準確的捕捉到左尾臨界機率1％的厚尾。 3.混合常態模型的峰態係數值接近於真實報酬率分配的峰態係數值，因此我們可以確認混合常態模型可以捕捉高峰的現象。 關鍵字：風險值、厚尾、歷史模擬法、變異數-共變異教法、混合常態模型、準貝式最大概似估計法、EM演算法、回溯測試、前向測試、高峰 / Initially, Value at Risk (VaR) is calculated by assuming that the underline asset return is normal distribution, but this assumption sometimes does not consist with the actual distribution of asset return. Many researchers have found that the actual distribution of the underline asset return have Fat-Tail, extreme value events, character. So under normal distribution assumption, the VaR value is improper compared with the actual losses. The paper discuss three methods. Historical Simulated method - Variance-Covariance method and Mixture Normal .simulating those asset, return and VaR by given proper confidence level. About the Mixture Normal Distribution, we use both EM algorithm and Quasi-Bayesian MLE calculating its parameters. Finally, we use tree VaR testing methods, Back test、Forward tes and Binomial test -----comparing its VaR loss probability We find the following results: 1.Under 1% left-tail critical probability, asset return distribution has significant Fat-tail character. 2.Using Mixture Normal distribution we can catch more Fat-tail character precisely than the other two methods. 3.The kurtosis of Mixture Normal is close to the actual kurtosis, this means that the Mixture Normal distribution can catch the Leptokurtosis phenomenon. Key words: Value at Risk、VaR、Fat tail、Historical simulation method、 Variance-Covariance method、Mixture Normal distribution、Quasi-Bayesian MLE、EM algorithm、Back test、 Forward test、 Leptokurtosis