Robust maximization of asymptotic growth under covariance uncertainty

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Abstract: This paper resolves a question proposed in Kardaras and Robertson [Ann. Appl. Probab. 22 (2012) 1576-1610]: how to invest in a robust growth-optimal way in a market where precise knowledge of the covariance structure of the underlying assets is unavailable. Among an appropriate class of admissible covariance structures, we characterize the optimal trading strategy in terms of a generalized version of the principal eigenvalue of a fully nonlinear elliptic operator and its associated eigenfunction, by slightly restricting the collection of nondominated probability measures.


The main quotation is [\textit{C. Kardaras} and \textit{S. Robertson}, Ann. Appl. Probab. 22, No. 4, 1576--1610 (2012; Zbl 1262.60040)]. The authors solve the problem how to trade optimally in a market when the investing horizon is long and the dynamics of the underlying assets are uncertain. The 2 page introduction and also systematical remarks, show the connection with the following description of the paper under review. Let \(\alpha ,\alpha '\in (0,1]\), \(E=\cup_{n\geq 1}E_{n}\subset{\mathbb R}^{d}\), \(\overline {E_{n}}\subset E_{n+1}\), \(E_{n}\) bounded open convex, \(\partial E_{n}\) being \(C^{2,\alpha '}\), \(E^{\wedge }= E\cup \{\Delta \}\) be the one point compactification of \(E\), \(x_{0}\in E\) fixed, \(X_{t}\) the coordinate process on \(\Omega =\{\omega \in C([0,\infty ),E^{\wedge }):\omega (t)=\Delta\,if\, \omega (s)= \Delta \text{ and } t>s\}\), \(S^{d}\) be the set of symmetric d\(\times\)d matrices, \({\mathcal A}(a,b)= \{M \in S^{d}:a\cdot 1\leq M\leq b\cdot 1\}\), \(C\) the set of all \(C_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,\alpha }\) functions \(c:E\rightarrow S^{d}\), and \(\theta (x)\cdot 1\leq c(x)\leq \Theta (x)\cdot 1\). For \(c\in C\) consider \(L^{c}\), acting on \(f\in C^{2}(E)\), as \[ (L^{c}f) (x)= (1/2)\sum_{i,j}c_{ij}(x)(\partial^{2}f/\partial x_{i}\partial x_{j})(x), \] i.e., as \((1/2)\mathrm{Tr}(c(x)(D^{2}f)(x))\) and the solution \(Q_{x_{0}}^{c}\), starting from \(x_{0}\), of the martingale problem \[ f(X_{\min(s,\zeta_{n})})-\int_{0}^{\min(s,\zeta_{n})}(L^{c}f)(X_{u})du, \] where \(\zeta_{n}=\inf\{t:\omega (t)\notin E_{n}\}\) and \(\Pi\) the set of all probabilities on \(\Omega\) which are locally \({\mathcal Q}_{x_{0}}^{c}\) absolutely continuous for some \(c\in C\). Let \({\mathcal V}\) be the set of all \({\mathbb R}^{d}\)-valued predictable \(\pi_{t}\), \({\mathcal Q}_{x_{0}}^{c}\) integrable for all \(c\) and with \(V_{t}^{\pi }=1+\int_{0}^{t}\pi_{t}^{\ast '}dX_{t}>0\) \({\mathcal Q}_{x_{0}}^{c}\) a.s., and define \[ g(\pi ,\operatorname{P})= \sup\{\gamma : \operatorname{P}\text{-}\liminf_{t\rightarrow \infty }(t^{- 1}\log V_{t}^{\pi })\geq \gamma, \operatorname{P}\text{-a.s.}\} \] The authors solve the problem by introducing a subset \(\Pi^{\ast }\subset \Pi\) and a \(\pi^{\ast }\in {\mathcal V}\) such that \(g(\pi^{\ast },\operatorname{P})\geq \lambda^{\ast }\) for all \(\operatorname{P}\in \Pi^{\ast }\), where \[ \lambda^{\ast }= \sup_{\pi \in {\mathcal V}}\inf_{\operatorname{P}\in \Pi^{\ast }}g(\pi , \operatorname{P})=\inf_{\operatorname{P}\in \Pi^{\ast }}\sup_{\pi \in {\mathcal V}}g(\pi ,\operatorname{P}). \] For \[ x\in E, M\in S^{d}, F(x,M)=(1/2)\sup_{A\in {\mathcal A}(\theta (x),\Theta (x))}\mathrm{Tr}(AM), \] for a domain \(D\subset E\) and \(\lambda \in {\mathbb R}\), let \[ H_{\lambda }^{c}(D)=\{\eta \in C^{2}(D):L^{c}\eta +\lambda \eta = 0,\eta >0\}, \] \[ H_{\lambda }(D)=\{\eta \in C^{2}(D): F(x,D^{2}\eta )+\lambda \eta \leq 0,\eta >0\} \] and, similarly, \(H_{\lambda }^{+}(D)\) with \(\eta \in C^{2}(\overline {D})\) and the inequality being in the viscosity sense. Let \(\lambda^{\ast ,c}(D)=\sup\{\lambda : H_{\lambda }^{c}(D)\neq \emptyset \}\), \(\lambda^{\ast }(D)=\sup\{\lambda :H_{\lambda }(D)\neq \emptyset \}\) and similarly \(\lambda^{+}(D)\). The first theorem proved in the paper states that \(\lambda^{\ast }(D)=\inf_{c\in C}\lambda^{\ast ,c}(D)\), for a bounded convex \(D\subset E\) with \(C^{2,\beta }\) boundary, \(\beta \in (0,1]\). The proof of \(\geq \) requires a result about continuous selections, established in an appendix (where some general information is given about the topic), namely that for two continuous \(\gamma ,\Gamma :E\rightarrow (0,+\infty )\), \(\gamma \leq \Gamma\), and \(\eta\) continuous on \(\overline {D}\), \(\eta >0\) on \(D\), \(0\) on \(\partial D\), \(F(x,D^{2}\eta )+\lambda^{+}(D)\eta =0\) in the viscosity sense on \(D\) and for \(m\in {\mathbb N}\), there exists a continuous \(c:D\rightarrow S^{d}\) with \(c(x)\in {\mathcal A}(\gamma (x),\Gamma (x))\), \(F_{\gamma ,\Gamma }(x,D^{2}\eta )\leq L^{c}\eta (x)+(1/m)\). The main technical result is \(\lambda^{\ast }(E)=\inf_{c\in C}\lambda^{\ast ,c}(E)\), preceded by \(\lambda^{\ast }(E)=\lim\lambda^{\ast }(E_{n})\) (descending). Another appendix is devoted to the proof of one of the steps. The third theorem considers \(\eta^{\ast }\in H_{\lambda^{\ast }(E)}(E)\), \(\eta^{\ast }(x_{0})=1\) and states that \(\pi_{t}^{\ast }=e^{\lambda^{\ast }t}(\nabla \eta^{\ast })(X_{t})\), \[ \Pi^{\ast }=\{\operatorname{P}\in \Pi :\operatorname{P}\text{-}\liminf_{t\rightarrow \infty }(t^{- 1}\log\eta^{\ast }(X_{t}))\geq 0,\operatorname{P}\text{-a.s.}\} \] and \(\lambda^{\ast }=\lambda^{\ast }(E)\) solve the problem.



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