 Portfolio selection in a two-regime worldMoshe Levy () and Guy Kaplanski European Journal of Operational Research, 2015, vol. 242, issue 2, 514-524 Abstract: Standard mean-variance analysis is based on the assumption of normal return distributions. However, a growing body of literature suggests that the market oscillates between two different regimes – one with low volatility and the other with high volatility. In such a case, even if the return distributions are normal in both regimes, the overall distribution is not – it is a mixture of normals. Mean-variance analysis is inappropriate in this framework, and one must either assume a specific utility function or, alternatively, employ the more general and distribution-free Second degree Stochastic Dominance (SSD) criterion. This paper develops the SSD rule for the case of mixed normals: the SSDMN rule. This rule is a generalization the mean-variance rule. The cost of ignoring regimes and assuming normality when the distributions are actually mixed normal can be quite substantial – it is typically equivalent to an annual rate of return of 2–3 percent. Keywords: Regimes; Stochastic dominance; Mean-variance; Portfolio optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:242:y:2015:i:2:p:514-524 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2014.10.012 Access Statistics for this article European Journal of Operational Research is currently edited by Roman Slowinski, Jesus Artalejo, Jean-Charles. Billaut, Robert Dyson and Lorenzo Peccati More articles in European Journal of Operational Research from Elsevier |
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