Tag Archives: statistical bootstrap
A complicated answer to a simple correlation question
A data analysis surprise party. Simple question If I have correlation matrices each estimated with a month of daily returns, how much worse is the average of six of those compared to the estimate with six months of daily data? Expected answer Do a statistical bootstrap with the returns and compare the standard deviations across … Continue reading
Variability of predicted portfolio volatility
A prediction of a portfolio’s volatility is an estimate — how variable is that estimate? Data The universe is 453 large cap US stocks. The variance matrices are estimated with the daily returns in 2012. Variance estimation was done with Ledoit-Wolf shrinkage (shrinking towards equal correlation). Two sets of random portfolios were created. In both … Continue reading
Posted in Quant finance, R language
Tagged Ledoit-Wolf shrinkage, statistical bootstrap, variance matrix
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Jackknifing portfolio decision returns
A look at return variability for portfolio changes. The problem Suppose we make some change to our portfolio. At a later date we can see if that change was good or bad for the portfolio return. Say, for instance, that it helped by 16 basis points. How do we properly account for variability in that … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Quant finance, R language
Tagged jackknife, statistical bootstrap
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Performance ratios, bootstrapping and infinite variances
If returns had infinite variance, would there be a problem bootstrapping information ratios? Background There is a discussion on the Quant Finance group of LinkedIn with the title: “How do you measure the confidence intervals of performance ratios?” One suggestion was to use the statistical bootstrap. This resulted in a discussion of the efficacy of … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, R language
Tagged infinite variance, information ratio, qqplot, statistical bootstrap
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4 and a half myths about beta in finance
Much of what has been said and thought about beta in finance is untrue. Myth 1: beta is about volatility This myth is pervasive. Beta is associated with the stock’s volatility but there is more involved. Beta is the ratio of the volatility of the stock to the volatility of the market times the correlation … Continue reading
Posted in Quant finance, R language
Tagged beta in finance, Capital Asset Pricing Model, CAPM, statistical bootstrap
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The number 1 novice quant mistake
It is ever so easy to make blunders when doing quantitative finance. Very popular with novices is to analyze prices rather than returns. Regression on the prices When you want returns, you should understand log returns versus simple returns. Here we will be randomly generating our “returns” (with R) and we will act as if … Continue reading
Were stock returns really better in 2007 than 2008?
We know that the S&P 500 was up a little in 2007 and down a lot in 2008. So on the surface the question seems really stupid. But randomness played a part. Let’s have a go at deciding how much of a part. Figure 1: Comparison of 2007 and 2008 for the S&P 500. Statistical … Continue reading
