Synopses & Reviews
it takes more than just precise timing and picking the right stocks to achieve exceptional results in today's markets. In order to capture consistent success, you need to strike the right balance between position sizing and risk management.
Nobody understands this better than author Philip McDonnell, and with Optimal Portfolio Modeling, he looks to share his extensive experiences in this field with you. As a thirty-year trading veteran, McDonnell knows what it takes to make it in a variety of markets, and now, by focusing on the relatively unexplored realm of money management and portfolio modeling, he'll show you how to do the same.
Optimal Portfolio Modeling is an easily accessible introduction to portfolio modeling for those who prefer an intuitive approach to this discipline. While early chapters provide engaging insights on the statistical properties of markets, this book quickly moves on to illustrate invaluable trading and risk control models based on popular programs such as Excel and the statistical modeling language R.Through both empirical and statistical techniques, this reliable resource presents modeling formulas that will allow you to maxi-mize the performance, minimize the drawdown, and manage the risk of your portfolio.
Specific issues explored throughout these pages include:
Modeling market microstructure randomness
The distribution of price changesfrom the Reflection Principle to choosing between empirical distributions and theoretical distributions
Modeling risk management and debunking stop-loss myths
The salient properties of a good utility model and its importance in optimal long-term growth of capital at the portfolio level
Proper backtesting for portfolio models
Plus much more
And through the book's companion CD-ROMwhich skillfully parallels the information presented in the text and contains numerous program examples written in either Excel or Ryou'll continue to cultivate your trading skills by learning how to use the tools that will allow you to develop distinct models.
As more smart money chases market returns, individual and professional traders need to take a more mathematical and statistically accurate approach to trading. Optimal Portfolio Modeling will show you how to do this, and much more, as you strive to achieve your personal investment objectives.
Synopsis
Innovative ideas in modern portfolio management
Optimal Portfolio Modeling provides readers with invaluable trading and risk control models using the most popular modeling programs-Excel and the statistical modeling language, R. Using empirical and statistical techniques, it presents modeling formulas that will allow readers to maximize the performance, minimize the drawdown, and manage the risk of their portfolios. As more smart money chases market returns, individual and professional traders need to take a more mathematical and statistically accurate approach to trading. Optimal Portfolio Modeling will show readers how to do this, and much more.
Philip J. McDonnell (Sammamish, WA) is a trader and software/trading methodologies developer who has created proprietary data collection and analysis tools for real-time analysis of market direction and stock selection, with an emphasis on options analysis.
Synopsis
Finally, a book that presents modeling formulas to maximize returns and manage risk for serious traders using empirical, statistical techniques. Specific topics covered include the importance of understanding investing as a statistical process. From there traditional concepts of money management are explored and many myths debunked. Formulas are given for the probability that a stop loss or stop profit will be executed. The impact of stops on the average return, probability of success, variance, skew, and kurtosis are examined. The formulas for these mutations in investment outcome have never before appeared in print. In many cases, readers may be shocked at the implications of stop loss techniques. A comprehensive set of optimal investment size formulas are developed which include cases of a single investment at a time and multiple investments both with and without correlations between them.
In addition, the book explains how to extend these formulas to both the case of standard distributions as well as empirical distributions. The goal of the optimal investment size formulas is to both maximize long term compounded return while reducing risk. Individual and professional money managers will also learn how to allocate portfolio assets to mathematically maximize their Sharpe ratio. The book also offers a unique new investment goal designed to maximize the compounded utility of wealth on a compounded basis.
Synopsis
Optimal Portfolio Modeling is an easily accessible introduction to portfolio modeling for those who prefer an intuitive approach to this discipline. While early chapters provide engaging insights on the statistical properties of markets, this book quickly moves on to illustrate invaluable trading and risk control models based on popular programs such as Excel and the statistical modeling language R. This reliable resource presents modeling formulas that will allow you to effectively maximize the performance, minimize the drawdown, and manage the risk of your portfolio.
Synopsis
Praise for Optimal Portfolio Modeling
"All too often, analysis ends with security selection. However, savvy investorsunderstand that security selection is where analysis starts. In this important contribution to the literature, Mr. McDonnell discusses position sizing, portfolio construction, utility, money management, and much more, all of which can make important contributions to your total return."
John Bollinger, CFA, CMT, www.BollingerBands.com
"This book provides a cornucopia of practical techniques with readily accessible statistical backup for maximizing returns from systematic trading."
Victor Niederhoffer, author of The Education of a Speculator and Practical Speculation
"What happens when stock market prices collide with a mathematician that really trades? Simple: myths are dispelled and truths are established. You are sure to learn from this book."
Larry Williams, author of Trading Stocks & Commodities with the Insiders: Secrets of the COT Report, and Long-Term Secrets to Short-Term Trading
"I can heartily recommend this wonderful, well-organized, and well-thought-out book by a very pragmatic and bright guy. It will give the reader an excellent understanding of the mathematical nature of portfolio modeling."
Ralph Vince, author of The Handbook of Portfolio Mathematics: Formulas for Optimal Allocation & Leverage
About the Author
Philip J. Mcdonnell is a trader and software/trading methodologies developer who has created proprietary data collection and analysis tools for real-time analysis of market direction and stock selection, with an emphasis on options analysis. He has handled network operations for a venture capital incubator, The Inception Group, and developed and sold options analysis software packages. McDonnell served as a research assistant at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Business, under Victor Niederhoffer. He holds degrees in mathematics and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Table of Contents
Foreword.
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Chapter 1. Modeling Market Microstructure Randomness in Markets.
The Random Walk Model.
What You Cannot Predict Is Random To You.
Market Microstructure.
Efficient Market Hypothesis.
Arbitrage Pricing Theory.
Chapter 2. The Distribution of Price Changes.
The Normal Distribution.
The Empirical Distribution.
The Lognormal as an Approximation.
Chapter 3. Investment Objectives.
Statistician's Fair Game.
A Fair Game Is A Loser!
Criteria for a Favorable Game.
Gambler's Ruin.
Optimal Return Models.
Markets Are Rational, Psychologists Are Not.
The St. Petersburg Paradox.
Compounded Return is the Real Objective.
Defining Risk.
Minimum Risk Models.
Correlation of Assets.
Summary of Correlation Relationships.
Beta and Alpha.
The Efficient Frontier and the Market Portfolio.
The Sharpe Ratio.
Limitations of Modern Portfolio Theory.
Chapter 4. Modeling Risk Management and Stop Loss Myths.
Stop Loss Orders.
Stops: Effect on the Mean Return.
Stops: Effect on the Probability of Gain.
Stops: Probability of being stopped out.
Stops: Effect on Variance and Standard Deviation.
Effect on Skew.
Effect on the Kurtosis.
Stop Loss: Summary.
Modeling Stops.
Identifying When to Use Stops and When Not To.
Stop Profits.
Puts and Calls.
Chapter 5. Maximal Compounded Return Model.
Optimal Compound Return Models.
Relative Returns.
Average Stock Returns, but Compound Portfolio Returns.
Logarithms and the Optimal Exponential Growth Model.
Position Sizing as the Only Guaranteed Risk Control.
Controlling Risk through Optimal Position Sizing.
Maximize Compounded Portfolio Return.
Maximal Compounded Return Models.
What the Model Is and Is Not.
Modeling the Empirical Distribution.
Correlations.
The Enhanced Maximum Investment Formulas.
Expected Drawdowns May be Large.
Chapter 6. Utility Models - Preferences Toward Risk and Return.
Basis for a Utility Model.
History of Logarithms.
Optimal Compounded Utility Model.
The Sharpe Ratio.
Optimal Model for the Sharpe Ratio.
Optimization with Excel Solver.
Chapter 7. Money Management Formulas Using the Joint Multi-Asset Distribution.
The Continuous Theoretical Distributions.
Maximal Log Log Model in the presence of Correlation.
Optimal Sharpe Model with Correlation.
The Empirical Distribution.
Maximal Log Log Model in the Presence of Correlation.
Maximizing the Sharpe Ratio in the Presence of Correlation.
Chapter 8. Proper Backtesting for Portfolio Models.
Assuring Good Data.
Synchronize Data.
Use Net Changes NOT Levels.
Only Use Information from the Past.
Predictive Studies vs. Non-Predictive Studies.
Use Intraday Highs and Lows for Model Accuracy.
Adjusted Data May Be Erroneous.
Adjusting Your Own Data.
Miscellaneous Data Pitfalls.
Tabulate and Save the Detailed Results with Dates.
Overlapping Dates are Important for Correlations.
Calculate Mean, Standard Deviation, Variance and Probability of Win.
Robust Methods to Find Statistics.
Confidence Limits for Robust Statistics.
Chapter 9. The Combined Optimal Portfolio Model.
Choosing the Theoretical Distribution.
The Empirical Distribution.
Selecting Sharpe Versus a Log Log Objective Function.
Model Simulation.
Professional Money Manager versus Private Investor.
About the CD-Rom.
Contents of the CD-Rom.
Installation of the CD-Rom.
Using the Programs.
Updates to the CD-Rom.
Appendix A. Table of Values of the Normal Distribution.
Appendix B. Installing R.
Appendix C. Introduction to R.
Introduction to R Manual.
Appendix D. R Language Definition.
R Language Definition Manual.
Index.