Copula-based Black–Litterman portfolio optimization

  • Maziar Sahamkhadam
  • , Andreas Stephan*
  • , Ralf Östermark
  • *Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    30 Citations (Scopus)
    431 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    We extend the Black-Litterman (BL) approach to incorporate tail dependency in portfolio optimization and estimate the posterior joint distribution of returns using vine copulas. Our novel copula-based BL (CBL) model leads to flexibility in modeling returns symmetric and asymmetric multivariate distribution from a range of copula families. Based on a sample of the Eurostoxx 50 constituents (also for S&P 100 as robustness check), we evaluate the performance of the suggested CBL approach and portfolio optimization technique using out-of-sample back-testing. Our empirical analysis and robustness check indicate better performance for the CBL portfolios in terms of lower tail risk and higher risk-adjusted returns, compared to the benchmark strategies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1055-1070
    Number of pages16
    JournalEuropean Journal of Operational Research
    Volume297
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 16 Mar 2022
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    We want to thank Claudia Czado for her helpful comments. We are thankful to the developers of R packages “rmgarch” and “rvinecopulib”. In addition, we are grateful for the suggestions of seminar participants at the 13th International Conference on Computational and Financial Econometrics (CFE 2019) in London, 3rd Annual Workshop on Financial Econometrics organized by Örebro University School of Business, 2nd Annual Workshop on Emerging Topics in Financial Economics organized by Linkping University, 5th Econometric Research in Finance (ERFIN 2020) organized by SGH Warsaw School of Economics. The usual disclaimer applies.

    Keywords

    • Black–Litterman framework
    • Conditional value-at-risk
    • Finance
    • Portfolio optimization
    • Tail constraints
    • Truncated regular vine copula

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