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    Alternatives to Cap-Weighted Indices

    EDHEC Institutional Days

    Monaco, December 8th, 2010, 14:15-15:30

    2

    Lionel Martellini

    Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School

    Scientific Director, EDHEC Risk Institute

    [email protected]

    www.edhec-risk.com

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    3

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

    Outline

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    4

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    5

    A number of (index or fund) providers have recently designedand launched non cap-weighted indices.

    The (non-exhaustive) list includes:

    fundamental indices

    equally-weighted indices minimum variance indices

    efficient indices

    equal-risk contribution (a.k.a. risk parity) indices

    maximum diversification indices

    This presentation provides a summary of the objectives of, and

    assumptions behind, the various indexing concepts.

    Beyond Cap Weighting

    Comparing Alternatives

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    6

    Beyond Cap Weighting

    Concepts versus Figures

    We will not focus so much on past performance; track records (bydefinition) all look pretty good!

    Instead, we propose to provide an academic perspective on theconceptual assumptions underpinning the different methods.

    (Even out-of-sample) track records are sample-dependent and thusperformance figures rely on the data and time period at hand.

    For long-term benchmarks, it is important that performance is drivenby a sound concept that relies on reasonable assumptionsrather than

    by exploiting anomaliesin past returns data. If achieving higher risk-adjusted performance is not the focus of a

    methodology, achieving it is at best a collateral benefit.

    In Senecas words (circa 30 BC):If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

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    7

    The words index and benchmark are often usedinterchangeably; yet they define a priorivery different concepts.

    Market perspective: an indexis a portfolio that shouldrepresent the performance of a given segment of the market.

    => focus on representativity

    Investor perspective: a benchmarkis a reference portfolio thatshould represent the fair reward expected in exchange for risk

    exposures that an investor is willing to accept.=> focus on efficiency

    CW portfolios have long been portrayed as representative and

    efficient, but have faced increased criticism on both fronts.

    Beyond Cap-Weighting

    Which Port do we want to Sail to: Indices versus Benchmarks

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    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    9

    A market cap weighted scheme is the obvious default optionwhen it comes to representing a given segment of the market.

    Market cap weighted indices provide by construction a fairrepresentation of the stock market;

    In the end, cap-weighting is nothing but an ad-hoc weightingscheme that achieves some form of representativity.

    Cap-weighted indices, however, may not provide a fairrepresentation of the underlying economic fundamentals.

    Some have argued that they represent well the stock market butnot the economy.

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting for Representativity?

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    10

    Rather than using the market cap, fundamental indices usefirm attributes such as book value, dividends, sales or cash

    flows as measures of size.

    These indices aim at better representing the economy.Arnott (2007): The Fundamental Index weights companies in

    accordance to their footprint in the broad economy [] you wind upwith a portfolio that mirrors the economy.

    Whether or not fundamentally weighted indices betterrepresent the economy is actually an open question, if only

    because representativity is not a concept that is linked to clearmeasures.

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Fundamental Weighting for Representativity?

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    11

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    12

    In any case, it is not clear why investors would care about theirportfolios representing the economy.

    From the investors perspective, the focus should be onefficiency: obtaining fair rewards for given risk budgets.

    Efficiency is intimately related to diversification: it is byconstructing well-diversified portfolios that one can achieve afair reward for a given risk exposure.

    CW portfolios in fact appear to be rather inefficient and poorlydiversified portfolios, and several approaches have beendeveloped so as to improve diversification compared to cap-weighting.

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Efficiency is Related to Diversification

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    Cap-weighting is often believed to lead to risk/reward efficientportfolios, but that belief is not really based on firm grounds.

    The belief in efficiency of CW is based on a nave interpretationof W. Sharpes Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM):

    No need to gather any information on risk & return parametersto find optimal portfolios ... because everybody else does!

    When relaxing the highly unrealistic assumptions of the CAPM,financial theory does not predict that the market portfolio is efficient(Sharpe (1991), Markowitz (2005)).

    If there are multiple risk factors, the mean-variance optimal portfoliois no longer CW (Merton (1971), Cochrane (1999)); in a post-CAPMmulti-factor world, CW is just an arbitrary weighting scheme.

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Cap-Weighting for Efficiency?

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    Cap-weighting is particularly inefficient because it leads to highconcentration: the effective number of stocksin the index is low.

    Some index construction approaches simply avoid thisconcentration; such simple de-concentration strategies do notaim for optimality and are not grounded in portfolio theory.

    The effective number ofstocks is the reciprocal of theHerfindhal index, a measure

    of portfolio concentration.

    Index Nominalnumber

    Effectivenumber

    S&P 500 94

    NASDAQ 100 37

    FTSE 100 (UK) 100 28

    FTSE Eurobloc 300 104

    FTSE Japan 500 103Average effective number based on quarterly assessment for the time

    period 01/1959 to 12/2008 for the S&P, 01/1975 to 12/2008 for theNASDAQ, and 12/2002 to 12/2008 for the other indices .

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    CW leads to High Concentration

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    15

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    Nave de-concentration:

    Equal-weighting simply gives the same weight to each of Nstocksin the index (1/Nrule).

    Equal-weighting is the nave route to constructing well diversifiedportfolios.

    Semi-nave de-concentration:

    Equal risk contribution (ERC) takes into account contribution to risk.

    Contribution to risk is not proportional to dollar contribution.

    Find portfolio weights such that contributions to risk are equal(Maillard, Roncalli and Teiletche (2010)):

    Ad-Hoc Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Equal Weighting and Equal Risk Contribution

    16 16

    j

    p

    j

    i

    p

    i

    w

    w

    w

    w

    =

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    Statistical de-concentration:

    Define a diversification index and try and maximize it by utilizing the

    correlations that drive the magic of diversification: The whole isbetter than the sum of its parts.

    Maximum Diversification (also known as anti-benchmark) aims atgenerating portfolios with the highest possible diversification index

    (Choueifaty and Coignard (2008)):

    The weighted average risk(in the numerator) will be high comparedto portfolio risk(in the denominator) and thus DIwill be high if the

    portfolio weights exploit well the correlations.

    Ad-Hoc Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Maximum Diversification Benchmarks/Anti-Benchmark

    =

    =

    =n

    ji

    ijji

    n

    i

    ii

    w

    ww

    w

    MaxDI

    1,

    1

    17

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    18

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Towards the Efficient Frontier

    19 19

    Scientific diversification is based on reaching a high risk/returnobjective through portfolio construction techniques.

    In practice, to get a decent proxy for efficient portfolios, one needsto use careful risk and return parameter estimates; practicalapproaches to scientific diversification make different choicesregarding the challenge of risk and return estimation.

    Technology is available to generate reliable risk parameterestimates: Suitably designed factor models to mitigate the curse of

    dimensionality(see also statistical shrinkage techniques). Accounting for non-stationarity: e.g., GARCHand Regime Switching

    models.

    On the other hand, statistics is close to useless in terms ofexpected return estimation (Merton (1980)).

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    Volatility

    Expected

    Return

    Maximum SharpeRatio (MSR) Portfolio

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    GMV vs. MSR

    GlobalMinimumVariance

    (GMV)Portfolio

    The MSR provides the highest reward per unit of portfolio volatility:needed optimization inputs are expected returns, correlations andvolatilities.

    The GMV provides the lowest possible portfolio volatility: neededoptimization inputs are correlations and volatilities. 20

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    If you feel comfortable about estimating risk parameters the variance-covariance matrix, but not about estimating expected return

    parameters, the global minimum variance (GMV) benchmark is theway to go (e.g., Amenc and Martellini (2003)).

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Minimum Variance Benchmarks (GMV)

    21

    This approach provides a low

    volatility portfolio but also a lowperformance portfolio: ex-ante,MSR+cash is better than GMV.

    Ex-post, MV portfolios tend to beconcentrated portfolios withoverweighting of low volatilitystocks, with a Sharpe ratio lowerthan that of EW (Garlappi et al.

    (2007)).21

    0 5 10 15 20 250

    2

    4

    6

    8

    10

    12

    14

    16

    18

    Annualiz

    edexpectedreturn

    Annualized volatility

    Efficient frontier

    Tangency line

    GMV

    MSR

    MSR + cash

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    22

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Efficient Indexation (MSR)

    Efficient Indexation is about maximizing the Sharpe ratio.

    Just like in the Minimum Variance approach, EfficientIndexation exploits information on the covariance matrix ofstock returns; the approach uses suitably designed factormodels to mitigate the curse of dimensionality.

    While direct estimation of expected returns from past returns isuseless, all hope on expected returns estimation is not lost!

    Common sense suggests that expected return parametersshould be positively related to risk parameters (risk-returntradeoff).

    Efficient Indexation uses indirect estimation of expected returns

    through a stocks riskiness.

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    23

    Theory unambiguously confirms the existence of a positiverisk/return relationship:

    Systematic risk is rewarded (APT);

    Specific risk is also rewarded (Merton (1987)) (*);

    Total volatility (model-free) should therefore be rewarded;

    Higher moment risk is also rewarded (many references).

    Use the risk-return relationship to build efficient portfolios: magicof diversification is about mixing high-risk-and-therefore-high-

    return stocks in a smart way so as to generate low risk portfolios!

    (*) See also Barberis and Huang (2001) Malkiel and Yu (2002), Boyle, Garlappi, Uppal and Wang (2009) .

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    On the Risk-Return Relationship

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    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    iv Puzzle VW Portfolios over Short Horizons

    Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang (2006,2009): iv puzzle12 Month idiosyncratic volatility

    1 Month realized return10 VW PortfoliosValue Weighted Portfolio returnsNegative RelationshipHigh-Low returns mainly driven by high

    iVol portfolio

    Value Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (iVol)

    0.00

    0.01

    0.10

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'

    Valueof1$investedin

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Value Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (iVol)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

    Ten VW portfolios containing an equal number ofstocks (extracted from the CRSP data base) are builtevery month after sorting the stocks based on somerisk measure, here idiosyncratic volatility w.r.t. FF

    model (calculated using daily data for last 12months); the returns of each of these portfolios are

    calculated subsequent one-month periods andaveraged across the portfolio formation date.

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    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    No iv Puzzle EW Portfolios over Short Horizons

    Negative relationship disappears whenEW used.Extremely low return of High-Volatilityportfolio disappears.We still do not have a positive relationship.

    Return reversal : Huang, Liu, Rhee, and Zhang (2009) Extreme winners and losers (over the past month)typically have high iVol over the last 1 month

    In high iVol portfolios: # past winners is almost equalto # past losers, but average weight of past winners issubstantially larger. Short-term return reversal effect: past-month winnerstend to under perform in subsequent month . So, VW lowers the portfolio return compared to other

    portfolios and EW does not.

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (iVol)

    0.10

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    10000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'Valueof1$investedin

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (iVol)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

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    Positive risk-return relationship across allportfolios.

    Not only the extreme portfolios.Intuition: long-horizon realized returns areless susceptible to local events and hencebetter proxies for expected returns.compared to short-horizon realized returns.

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Long Horizon (iVol)

    0.10

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    10000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'Valueof1$invested

    in

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Long Horizon (iVol)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    30.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    What iv Puzzle ? EW Portfolios over Long Horizons

    Ten EW portfolios containing an equal number ofstocks (extracted from the CRSP data base) are builtevery month after sorting the stocks based on somerisk measure, here idiosyncratic volatility w.r.t. FF

    model (calculated using daily data for last 12months); the returns of each of these portfolios are

    calculated subsequent 24-months periods andaveraged across the portfolio formation date.

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    Blitz and Vliet (2007)12 Month total volatility

    1 Month realized return10 PortfoliosValue Weighted Portfolio returnsNegative risk-return relationship High-Low returns mainly driven by

    low tVol portfolio

    Value Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (tVol)

    0.01

    0.10

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'

    Valueof1$investedin

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Value Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (tVol)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    tv Puzzle VW Portfolios over Short Horizons

    Ten VW portfolios containing an equal number ofstocks (extracted from the CRSP data base) are builtevery month after sorting the stocks based on somerisk measure, here total volatility (calculated using

    daily data for last 12 months); the returns of each ofthese portfolios are calculated subsequent one-month periods and averaged across the portfolio

    formation date.

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    12 Month total volatility

    1 Month realized return10 PortfoliosEqually Weighted Portfolio returns

    Again, Negative relationship disappearswhen EW used. Extremely low return of High-Volatilityportfolio disappears.We still do not have a positive relationship.

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (tVol)

    0.10

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'Valueof1$invested

    in

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Short Horizon (tVol)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    No tv Puzzle EW Portfolios over Short Horizons

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    12 Month total volatility

    24 Month realized return10 EW Portfolios

    Positive risk-return relationshipacross all portfolios.Not only the extreme portfolios.Results are valid even tVol iscalculated using larger period.

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Long Horizon (tVol)

    0.10

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    10000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'Valueof1$investedin

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Long Horizon (tVol)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    30.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    What tv Puzzle? EW Portfolios over Long Horizons

    Ten EW portfolios containing an equal number ofstocks (extracted from the CRSP data base) are builtevery month after sorting the stocks based on somerisk measure, here total volatility (calculated using

    daily data for last 12 months); the returns of each ofthese portfolios are calculated subsequent 24-monthperiods and averaged across the portfolio formation

    date.

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    Evidence that stock downside risk is related to expected returns

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Downside Risk & Expected Returns

    Authors Risk Measure MomentsZhang (2005) Skewness Skew

    Boyer, Mitton andVorkink (2009)

    Skewness Skew

    Tang and Shum (2003) Skewness Skew

    Connrad, Dittmar andGhysels (2009)

    Skewness Skew

    Ang et al. (2006) Downside correlation Vol, Skew, Kurt

    Huang et al (2009) Value-at-Risk (EVT) Vol, Skew, Kurt

    Bali and Cakici (2004) Value-at-Risk(Historical)

    Vol,Skew, Kurt

    Chen et al. (2009) Semi-deviation Vol, Skew, Kurt

    Estrada (2000) Semi-deviation Vol, Skew, Kurt

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    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Total Semi-Deviation EW Decile Portfolios Long Horizon

    12 Month Total Semi-Deviation

    24 Month realized return10 PortfoliosEqually Weighted Portfolio returns

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Long Horizon (sem i-deviation)

    1.00

    10.00

    100.00

    1000.00

    10000.00

    64' 67' 70' 73' 76' 79' 82' 85' 88' 91' 94' 97' 00' 03' 06' 09'

    Valueof1$invested

    in

    1964

    Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 High

    Equally Weighted Portfolios: Long Horizon (sem i-deviation)

    -10.0%

    -5.0%

    0.0%

    5.0%

    10.0%

    15.0%

    20.0%

    25.0%

    30.0%

    0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

    Average Risk over Cross-Section

    AveragePortfolio

    Retur

    n

    and

    Standard

    ErrorBoun

    ds

    Positive risk-return relationship

    across all portfolios.Not only the extreme portfolios.Results are valid even semi-deviation is calculated using largerperiod.

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    32

    The average cumulative return for portfolios sorted on semi-deviation.

    0%

    10%

    20%

    30%

    40%

    50%

    60%

    70%

    80%

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

    Month after portfolio formation

    Port Low

    Port 2

    Port 3

    Port 4

    Port 5

    Port 6

    Port 7

    Port 8

    Port 9

    Port High

    Ten portfolios containing an equal number of stocks (extracted from the CRSP data base) are built every month after sorting the stocks

    based on their semi-deviation (calculated using daily data for last 30 months); the cumulative returns of each of these portfolios are

    calculated for various holding periods and averaged across the portfolio formation date.

    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Downside Risk and Expected Returns

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    Scientific Approach to Well-Diversified Portfolios

    Long-Term Results

    Index

    Ann.

    average

    return

    Ann. std.

    Deviation

    Sharpe

    Ratio

    Information

    Ratio

    Tracking

    Error

    Efficient Index 11.63% 14.65% 0.41 0.52 4.65%

    Cap-weighted 9.23% 15.20% 0.24 0.00 0.00%

    Difference (Efficientminus Cap-weighted)

    2.40% -0.55% 0.17 - -

    p-value for difference 0.14% 6.04% 0.04% - -

    The table shows risk and return statistics portfolios constructed with using the same set of constituents as the cap-weighted S&P 500 index.

    Rebalancing is quarterly subject to an optimal control of portfolio turnover (by setting the reoptimisation threshold to 50%). Portfolios areconstructed by maximising the Sharpe ratio given an expected return estimate and a covariance estimate. The expected return estimate is

    set to the median total risk of stocks in the same decile when sorting on total risk. The covariance matrix is estimated using an implicit factormodel for stock returns. Weight constraints are set so that each stock's weight is between 1/2N and 2/N, where N is the number of index

    constituents. P-values for differences are computed using the paired t-test for the average, the F-test for volatility, and a Jobson-Korkie testfor the Sharpe ratio. The results are based on weekly return data from 01/1959. We use a calibration period of 2 years and rebalance the

    portfolio every three months (at the beginning of January, April, July and October).

    33

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    34

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    Each of the aforementioned weighting methods makes differentmethodological choices.

    However, portfolio theory tells us that there is only one optimalportfolio: the tangency (MSR) portfolio.

    Question: Under which conditions would the portfolio constructionchoices of different index weighting schemes be truly optimal?

    KIS(BNTS) principle: robustness of a method may justify simpleassumptions but is important that assumptions also remainreasonable; if the conditions are too restrictive, we are unlikely toobtain optimal portfolios.

    35

    Conditions for Optimality

    Keep it Simple But Not Too Simple

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    Volatility

    ExpectedReturn

    The true tangency portfolio is a function of the(unknown) trueparameter values

    OptimalPortfolio

    ijiiMSRfw ,,=

    Implementable proxies depend onassumptions aboutparameter values

    ijiiMSR fw ,, =

    Cap-weighted index

    36

    Conditions for Optimality

    Assumptions about Parameter Values

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    Conditions for Optimality

    Indices aiming at Representativity

    Cap-weighting:

    One simply turns to the market, and hope that everyone else hasdone a careful job at estimating risk and return parameters anddesigning efficient benchmarks so we simply do not have to itourselves!

    This would be a very nave belief in the CAPM.

    Fundamental weighting:

    Conditions under which this weighting scheme would be optimalare not clear.

    As an example, it would be optimal if risk parameters areidentical and expected return is proportional to the fourfundamental variables used for the weighting.

    37

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    Conditions for Optimality

    De-Concentration Approaches

    Equal-weighting:

    Optimal if and only if one assumes all stocks have the sameexpected return and

    the same volatility and

    the same pairwise correlations!

    Equal Risk Contribution (Maillard et al. (2010)):

    Optimal if and only if one assumes all stocks have sameSharpe ratios and

    the same pairwise correlations.

    Maximum Diversification (Choueifaty and Coignard (2008)):

    Optimal if and only if one assumes all stocks have sameSharpe ratios.

    38

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    Conditions for Optimality

    Efficient Frontier Approaches

    Minimum Variance:

    Only optimal if one assumes that all stocks have the sameexpected returns, hardly a neutral/reasonable choice.

    Efficient Indexation:

    Optimal if one assumes that expected returns between stocksare different, and positively related to downside risk.

    39

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    40

    Introduction: Beyond Cap-Weighting

    In Search of Representative Indices

    Cap-Weighting

    Fundamental Weights

    Designing Efficient Investment Benchmarks

    Ad-Hoc Diversification: De-concentrating Portfolios

    Scientific Diversification: Towards the Efficient Frontier

    Alternative Weighting Schemes: Conditions for Optimality?

    Conclusion: Concept Selection vs. Concept Diversification

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    41

    Conclusion

    Cap-weighted indices are not efficient or well-diversifiedportfolios because they were never meant to be.

    While alternative weighting schemes typically improveperformance, they have different objectives and more or lessstrong assumptions need to be made before one canconclude that they are truly optimal portfolios.

    Investors beyond assessing performance need toconsider whether assumptions and objectives behind eachconcept are compatible with their views and needs.

    An outstanding question, which we do not address in thispresentation, is that of concept diversification versus conceptselection.

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    42

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