On the Gains of Using High Frequency Data in Portfolio Selection

This paper analyzes empirically the performance gains of using high frequency data in portfolio selection. Assuming Constant Relative Risk Aversion (CRRA) preferences, with different relative risk aversion levels, we compare low and high frequency portfolios within mean-variance, mean-variance-skewness and mean-variance-skewness-kurtosis frameworks. Using data on fourteen stocks of the Euronext Paris, from January 1999 to December 2005, we conclude that the high frequency portfolios outperform the low frequency portfolios for every out-of-sample measure, irrespectively to the relative risk aversion coefficient considered. The empirical results also suggest that for moderate relative risk aversion the best performance is always achieved through the jointly use of the realized variance, skewness and kurtosis. This claim is reinforced when trading costs are taken into account.

HETEROGENEITY IN RISK PREFERENCES LEADS TO STOCHASTIC VOLATILITY

This paper studies the price processes of a claim on terminal endowment and of a claim on firm book value when the underlying variables follow a bivariate geometric Brownian motion. If the state-price process is multiplicatively separable into time and endowment functions, our main result shows that firm (endowment) price volatility is stochastic (state-dependent) if, and only if, the endowment function is not a power function. In a pure exchange economy populated by two agents with constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) preferences we confirm the separability, and we show furthermore that firm (endowment) price volatility is stochastic (state-dependent) if, and only if, both agents are heterogeneous in risk-preferences.

Overview of the Issue

This issue features two original research articles, three issues & policy articles and a book review section. The lead article is by Geoffrey Kingston and Susan Thorp (University of New South Wales, Australia) and addresses the issue of Annuitization and asset allocation with HARA utility. One of the puzzles in retirement economics is why individuals do not choose to purchase annuities and Kingston and Thorp explore in detail a real options model in which individual preferences obey the broad class of hyperbolic absolute risk aversion utility. The theory of Real Options argues that people might want to delay annuitisation at relatively younger ages because the price of life annuities might improve and annuitisation is irreversible. However, Kingston and Thorp show that the implications of a Real Options approach varies across individuals considerably. For example, when individuals have a desired consumption floor as opposed to CRRA preferences, they are more likely to want to purchase annuities earlier than later. It would be interesting to see empirical tests done in this area to test the relatively new Real Options theory as it applies to irreversible personal financial decisions, such as annuitization.