Risk And Portfolio Analysis

Investment and risk management problems are fundamental problems for financial institutions and involve both speculative and hedging decisions. A structured approach to these problems naturally leads one to the field of applied mathematics in order to translate subjective probability beliefs and attitudes towards risk and reward into actual decisions. In Risk and Portfolio Analysis the authors present sound principles and useful methods for making investment and risk management decisions in the presence of hedgeable and non-hedgeable risks using the simplest possible principles, methods, and models that still capture the essential features of the real-world problems. They use rigorous, yet elementary mathematics, avoiding technically advanced approaches which have no clear methodological purpose and are practically irrelevant. The material progresses systematically and topics such as the pricing and hedging of derivative contracts, investment and hedging principles from portfolio theory, and risk measurement and multivariate models from risk management are covered appropriately. The theory is combined with numerous real-world examples that illustrate how the principles, methods, and models can be combined to approach concrete problems and to draw useful conclusions. Exercises are included at the end of the chapters to help reinforce the text and provide insight. This book will serve advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and practitioners in insurance, finance as well as regulators. Prerequisites include undergraduate level courses in linear algebra, analysis, statistics and probability.

Financial Risk Measurement is a challenging task, because both the types of risk and the techniques evolve very quickly. This book collects a number of novel contributions to the measurement of financial risk, which address either non-fully explored risks or risk takers, and does so in a wide variety of empirical contexts.

Portfolio risk forecasting has been and continues to be an active research field for both academics and practitioners. Almost all institutional investment management firms use quantitative models for their portfolio forecasting, and researchers have explored models' econometric foundations, relative performance, and implications for capital market behavior and asset pricing equilibrium. Portfolio Risk Analysis provides an insightful and thorough overview of financial risk modeling, with an emphasis on practical applications, empirical reality, and historical perspective. Beginning with mean-variance analysis and the capital asset pricing model, the authors give a comprehensive and detailed account of factor models, which are the key to successful risk analysis in every economic climate. Topics range from the relative merits of fundamental, statistical, and macroeconomic models, to GARCH and other time series models, to the properties of the VIX volatility index. The book covers both mainstream and alternative asset classes, and includes in-depth treatments of model integration and evaluation. Credit and liquidity risk and the uncertainty of extreme events are examined in an intuitive and rigorous way. An extensive literature review accompanies each topic. The authors complement basic modeling techniques with references to applications, empirical studies, and advanced mathematical texts. This book is essential for financial practitioners, researchers, scholars, and students who want to understand the nature of financial markets or work toward improving them.

The most salient feature of security returns is uncertainty. The purpose of the book is to provide systematically a quantitative method for analyzing return and risk of a portfolio investment in di?erent kinds of uncertainty and present the ways for striking a balance between investment return and risk such that an optimal portfolio can be obtained. In classical portfolio theory, security returns were assumed to be random variables, and probability theory was the main mathematical tool for h- dling uncertainty in the past. However,the world is complex and uncertainty is varied. Randomnessis nottheonly typeofuncertaintyinreality,especially when human factors are included. Security market, one of the most complex marketsintheworld,containsalmostallkindsofuncertainty. Thesecurity- turns are sensitive to various factors including economic, social, political and very importantly, people’s psychological factors. Therefore, other than strict probability method, scholars have proposed some other approaches including imprecise probability, possibility, and interval set methods, etc. , to deal with uncertaintyinportfolioselectionsince1990’s. Inthisbook,wewantto addto thetools existingin sciencesomenewandunorthodoxapproachesforanal- ing uncertainty of portfolio returns. When security returns are fuzzy, we use credibility which has self-duality property as the basic measure and employ credibilitytheorytohelpmakeselectiondecisionsuchthatthedecisionresult will be consistent with the laws of contradiction and excluded middle. Being awarethat one tool is not enough for solving complex practical problems, we further employ uncertain measure and uncertainty theory to help select an optimal portfolio when security returns behave neither randomly nor fuzzily. One core of portfolio selection is to ?nd a quantitative risk de?nition of a portfolio investment.

In answer to the intense development of new financial products and the increasing complexity of portfolio management theory, Portfolio Optimization and Performance Analysis offers a solid grounding in modern portfolio theory. The book presents both standard and novel results on the axiomatics of the individual choice in an uncertain framework, cont

Targeted towards institutional asset managers in general and chief investment officers, portfolio managers and risk managers in particular, this practical book serves as a comprehensive guide to quantitative portfolio optimization, asset allocation and risk management. Providing an accessible yet rigorous approach to investment management, it gradually introduces ever more advanced quantitative tools for these areas. Using extensive examples, this book guides the reader from basic return and risk analysis, all the way through to portfolio optimization and risk characterization, and finally on to fully fledged quantitative asset allocation and risk management. It employs such tools as enhanced modern portfolio theory using Monte Carlo simulation and advanced return distribution analysis, analysis of marginal contributions to absolute and active portfolio risk, Value-at-Risk and Extreme Value Theory. All this is performed within the same conceptual, theoretical and empirical framework, providing a self-contained, comprehensive reading experience with a strongly practical aim.

Understand today's investment challenges and the role of theBloomberg system In recent years, changes have swept through the investmentindustry like wildfire. Academia has followed along and providednew lenses for viewing this transformation, as well as newstrategies for gaining a true understanding and knowledge ofinvestment and financial markets. Now, Equity Markets andPortfolio Analysis has been created to further informinvestment professionals and finance students on the basic conceptsand strategies of investments, and to provide more detaileddiscussions on advanced strategies and models. The concepts coveredin this book will help readers gain a better understanding of themarkets and uses for an increasing number of securities,strategies, and methodologies. Equity Markets and Portfolio Analysis is the only coreinvestment book that covers the functionality of Bloombergterminals, increasingly critical tools both in the classroom and onthe trading floor. As Bloomberg terminals now play a key role inthe research, teaching, and managing of student investment funds,understanding the system's information and analytical functions hasbecome more important than ever. In-depth coverage of fundamentals through more detailedconcepts for students and professionals who want to betterunderstand the evaluation, selection, and management ofsecurities One-of-a-kind training and instructional course, introductionto Bloomberg investment subjects, and reference for CFApreparation Bloomberg material provided in an appendix accompanying eachchapter, a useful option for professors Ideal for finance practitioners, investment bankers, andacademics This unique resource will give readers both the foundationalknowledge and the analytical tools necessary for investmentsuccess, both in the classroom and in the real world.