This is an advanced text on the theory of forward and futures markets which aims at providing readers with a comprehensive knowledge of how prices are established and evolve over time, what optimal strategies one can expect from the participants, what characterizes such markets and what major theoretical and practical differences distinguish futures from forward contracts. It should be of interest to students (majoring in finance with quantitative skills) academics (both theoreticians and empiricists), practitioners, and regulators.
Includes an examination of traditional asset allocation methods, why they do and do not work, and which elements can be used in overseeing the professional's own portfolio. In addition, the author introduces his own proven method of portfolio management and asset allocation strategies--the ``7-Step System''--using simple statistical techniques to forecast stock, bond, commodity, and money market returns. Free of complex mathematics, charts, graphs, and technical jargon, this is a highly readable guide to getting the most from today's sophisticated investment techniques.
This is a thoroughly updated edition of Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory, the standard text for doctoral students and researchers on the theory of asset pricing and portfolio selection in multiperiod settings under uncertainty. The asset pricing results are based on the three increasingly restrictive assumptions: absence of arbitrage, single-agent optimality, and equilibrium. These results are unified with two key concepts, state prices and martingales. Technicalities are given relatively little emphasis, so as to draw connections between these concepts and to make plain the similarities between discrete and continuous-time models. Readers will be particularly intrigued by this latest edition's most significant new feature: a chapter on corporate securities that offers alternative approaches to the valuation of corporate debt. Also, while much of the continuous-time portion of the theory is based on Brownian motion, this third edition introduces jumps--for example, those associated with Poisson arrivals--in order to accommodate surprise events such as bond defaults. Applications include term-structure models, derivative valuation, and hedging methods. Numerical methods covered include Monte Carlo simulation and finite-difference solutions for partial differential equations. Each chapter provides extensive problem exercises and notes to the literature. A system of appendixes reviews the necessary mathematical concepts. And references have been updated throughout. With this new edition, Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory remains at the head of the field.
We know asset allocation theory, and reality is much different in a market meltdown. This book highlights the most critical research tied to investing in up and down market cycles, asset allocation, and investment management over the last 50 years. We start with a critical look at diversification and asset allocation; we provide an in-depth analysis of investing in stocks, we then provide details on two active asset allocation approaches, make a case for index funds, and then introduce you to a management tool which we'll use to manage the asset allocation strategy going forward.
In an incomplete market in which non-redundant forward contracts contribute to span the uncertainty, some standard results of portfolio theory must be amended. When the investment opportunity set is driven by K state variables, a (K+3)-mutual fund separation theorem is obtained in lieu of Merton's (K+2)-fund separation result. The additional fund is a portfolio that hedges the interest rate risk brought about by the optimal portfolio strategy itself. Second, the mean-variance efficiency of the market portfolio of cash assets is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the linear relationship between expected return and beta to hold. Third, the pricing equation for a forward contract is shown to contain an extra term relative to that for a cash asset, term we name strategy risk premium.
An all-inclusive guide to trend following As more and more savvy investors move into the space, trend following has become one of the most popular investment strategies. Written for investors and investment managers, Trend Following with Managed Futures offers an insightful overview of both the basics and theoretical foundations for trend following. The book also includes in-depth coverage of more advanced technical aspects of systematic trend following. The book examines relevant topics such as: Trend following as an alternative asset class Benchmarking and factor decomposition Applications for trend following in an investment portfolio And many more By focusing on the investor perspective, Trend Following with Managed Futures is a groundbreaking and invaluable resource for anyone interested in modern systematic trend following.
In this paper we document that at the aggregate stock market level the unexpected volatility is negatively related to expected future returns and positively related to future volatility. We demonstrate how the predictive ability of unexpected volatility can be utilized in dynamic asset allocation strategies that deliver a substantial improvement in risk-adjusted performance as compared to traditional buy-and-hold strategies. In addition, we demonstrate that active strategies based on unexpected volatility outperform the popular active strategy with volatility target mechanism and have the edge over the widely reputed market timing strategy with 10-month simple moving average rule.
This book offers a comprehensive and coherent presentation of almost all aspects of Capital Market Finance, providing hands-on knowledge of advanced tools from mathematical finance in a practical setting. Filling the gap between traditional finance textbooks, which tend to avoid advanced mathematical techniques used by professionals, and books in mathematical finance, which are often more focused on mathematical refinements than on practical uses, this book employs advanced mathematical techniques to cover a broad range of key topics in capital markets. In particular, it covers all primitive assets (equities, interest and exchange rates, indices, bank loans), most vanilla and exotic derivatives (swaps, futures, options, hybrids and credit derivatives), portfolio theory and management, and risk assessment and hedging of individual positions as well as portfolios. Throughout, the authors emphasize the methodological aspects and probabilistic foundations of financial asset valuation, risk assessment and measurement. Background in financial mathematics, particularly stochastic calculus, is provided as needed, and over 200 fully worked numerical examples illustrate the theory. Based on the authors' renowned master's degree courses, this book is written for students in business and finance, as well as practitioners in quantitative finance. Apart from an undergraduate-level knowledge of calculus, linear algebra and probability, the book is self-contained with no prior knowledge of market finance required.
