Maximum Predictability Portfolio Optimization

Sammanfattning: Harry Markowitz work in the 50’s spring-boarded modernportfolio theory. It gives investors quantitative tools to compose and assessasset portfolios in a systematic fashion. The main idea of the Mean-Varianceframework is that composing an optimal portfolio is equivalent to solving aquadratic optimization problem.In this project we employ the Maximally Predictable Portfolio (MPP) frameworkproposed by Lo and MacKinlay, as an alternative to Markowitz’s approach, inorder to construct investment portfolios. One of the benefits of using theformer method is that it accounts for forecasting estimation errors. Ourinvestment strategy is to buy and hold these portfolios during a time periodand assess their performance. We show that it is indeed possible to constructportfolios with high rate of return and coefficient of determination based onhistorical data. However, despite their many promising features, the success ofMPP portfolios is short lived. Based on our assessment we conclude thatinvesting in the stock market solely on the basis of the optimization resultsis not a lucrative strategy