
ii
3.2 Portfolio optimization ........................................................................................... 34
3.3 The estimators of covariance matrix ..................................................................... 35
3.3.1 The sample covariance matrix (SCM) ............................................................ 36
3.3.2 The single index model (SIM) ....................................................................... 37
3.3.3 Constant correlation model (CCM) ................................................................. 39
3.3.4 Shrinkage towards single-index model (SSIM) ............................................... 40
3.3.5 Shrinkage towards constant correlation Model (SCCM) ................................. 42
3.3.6 Shrinkage towards identity matrix (STIM) ..................................................... 46
CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 50
4.1 Input Data ............................................................................................................. 50
4.2 Portfolio performance evaluation methodology .................................................... 54
4.3 Transaction costs .................................................................................................. 58
4.4 Performance metrics ............................................................................................. 58
4.4.1 Sharpe ratio (SR) ............................................................................................ 59
4.4.2 Maximum drawdown (MDD) ......................................................................... 59
4.4.3 Portfolio weight turnover (PT) ....................................................................... 60
4.4.4 Winning rate (WR) ......................................................................................... 61
4.4.5 Jensen’s Alpha ............................................................................................... 61
4.4.6 The statistical significance of the differences between two strategies on the
performance measures ............................................................................................. 62
4.5 VN - Index and 1/N portfolios benchmarks .......................................................... 63
CHAPTER 5: EMPIRICAL RESULTS ..................................................................... 64
5.1 VN – Index and 1/N portfolio performance .......................................................... 64
5.1.1 VN – Index performance ................................................................................ 64
5.1.2 1/N Portfolio performance .............................................................................. 67
5.2 Portfolio out – of –sample performance ................................................................ 70
5.2.1 Sample covariance matrix (SCM) ................................................................... 70
5.2.2 Single index model (SIM) .............................................................................. 74
5.2.3 Constant correlation model (CCM) ................................................................. 77