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This survey of portfolio theory, from its modern origins through more sophisticated, "postmodern" incarnations, evaluates portfolio risk according to the first four moments of any statistical distribution: mean, variance, skewness, and excess kurtosis. In pursuit of financial models that more accurately describe abnormal markets and investor psychology, this book bifurcates beta on either side of mean returns. It then evaluates this traditional risk measure according to its relative volatility and correlation components. After specifying a four-moment capital asset pricing model, this book devotes special attention to measures of market risk in global banking regulation. Despite the deficiencies of modern portfolio theory, contemporary finance continues to rest on mean-variance optimization and the two-moment capital asset pricing model. The term postmodern portfolio theory captures many of the advances in financial learning since the original articulation ofmodern portfolio theory. A comprehensive approach to financial risk management must address all aspects of portfolio theory, from the beautiful symmetries of modern portfolio theory to the disturbing behavioral insights and the vastly expanded mathematical arsenal of the postmodern critique. Mastery of postmodern portfolio theory's quantitative tools and behavioral insights holds the key to the efficient frontier of risk management.
List of contents
CHAPTER 1 - MODERN PORTFOLIO THEORY.- CHAPTER 2 - POSTMODERN PORTFOLIO THEORY.- CHAPTER 3 - SEDUCED BY SYMMETRY, SMARTER BY HALF.- CHAPTER 4 -THE FULL FINANCIAL TOOLKIT OF PARTIAL SECOND MOMENTS.- CHAPTER 5 - SORTINO, OMEGA, KAPPA: THE ALGEBRA OF FINANCIAL ASYMMETRY.- CHAPTER 6 - SINKING, FAST AND SLOW: RELATIVE VOLATILITY VERSUS CORRELATION TIGHTENING.- CHAPTER 7 - TIME-VARYING BETA: AUTOCORRELATION AND AUTOREGRESSIVE TIME SERIES.- CHAPTER 8 - ASYMMETRIC VOLATILITY AND VOLATILITY SPILLOVERS.- CHAPTER 9 - A FOUR-MOMENT CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL.- CHAPTER 10 - THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A SPATIALLY BIFURCATED FOUR-MOMENT CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL.- CHAPTER 11 - GOING TO EXTREMES: LEPTOKURTOSIS AS AN EPISTEMIC THREAT.- CHAPTER 12 - PARAMETRIC VALUE-AT-RISK (VAR) ANALYSIS.- CHAPTER 13 - PARAMETRIC VAR ACCORDING TO STUDENT'S T-DISTRIBUTION.- CHAPTER 14 - COMPARING STUDENT'S T-DISTRIBUTION WITH THE LOGISTIC DISTRIBUTIONCHAPTER 15 - EXPECTED SHORTFALL AS A RESPONSE TOMODEL RISK.- CHAPTER 16 -LATENT PERILS: STRESSED VAR, ELICITABILITY, AND SYSTEMIC RISK.- CONCLUSION: FINANCE AS A ROMANCE OF MANY MOMENTS.
About the author
James Ming Chen holds the Justin Smith Morrill Chair in Law at Michigan State University, USA. He teaches, lectures, and writes widely on law, economics, and regulation. His books, Disaster Law and Policy and Postmodern Portfolio Theory, cover a broad range of issues concerning extreme events and risk management, from natural to financial disasters. He is of counsel to the Technology Law Group of Washington, D.C.; a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States; and an elected member of the American Law Institute. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, Chen also served as a clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Summary
This survey of portfolio theory, from its modern origins through more sophisticated, “postmodern” incarnations, evaluates portfolio risk according to the first four moments of any statistical distribution: mean, variance, skewness, and excess kurtosis. In pursuit of financial models that more accurately describe abnormal markets and investor psychology, this book bifurcates beta on either side of mean returns. It then evaluates this traditional risk measure according to its relative volatility and correlation components. After specifying a four-moment capital asset pricing model, this book devotes special attention to measures of market risk in global banking regulation. Despite the deficiencies of modern portfolio theory, contemporary finance continues to rest on mean-variance optimization and the two-moment capital asset pricing model. The term postmodern portfolio theory captures many of the advances in financial learning since the original articulation ofmodern portfolio theory. A comprehensive approach to financial risk management must address all aspects of portfolio theory, from the beautiful symmetries of modern portfolio theory to the disturbing behavioral insights and the vastly expanded mathematical arsenal of the postmodern critique. Mastery of postmodern portfolio theory’s quantitative tools and behavioral insights holds the key to the efficient frontier of risk management.
