Portfolio Management Flashcards
What is the correlation between (sensitivity of corporate bond’s spread to changes in business cycle) to (that business’ level of cyclicality)
Positive
Sources of Tracking Error
1) Fees and expenses
2) Representative sampling/optimization
3) ADRs
4) Fund accounting practices
5) Regulatory and tax requirements
6) Asset manager operations
Holding period cost (%)
Round-trip trade cost (%) + Management fee for period (%) + bid-offer spread on purchase/sale
Standardized Beta
- utilized in fundamental factor models
- the value of the attribute for the asset minus the average value of the attribute across all stocks divided by the standard deviation of the attribute’s values across all stocks
- (value of attribute k for asset i - average value of attribute k) / standard deviation of the values of attribute k
Active Return
return on a portfolio minus the return on the portfolio’s benchmark
Active risk
The standard deviation of active returns
Tracking Error
- also called tracking risk and can be referred to as active risk
- sample standard deviation * (R(p) - R(b))
Information Ratio
- tool for evaluating mean active returns per unit of active risk
- IR = (R(p) - R(b)) / TE
Active risk squared
- variance of active return
- s^2 * (R(p) - R(b))
- Active factor risk + active specific risk
Active factor risk
The contribution to active risk squared resulting from the portfolio’s different-from-benchmark exposures relative to factors specified in the risk model
Active specific risk
- also called security selection risk
- Measures the active non-factor or residual risk assumed by the manager
3 Types of Multifactor models
1) Macroeconomic factor models
2) Fundamental factor models
3) Statistical factor models
- statistical methods are applied to a set of historical returns to determine portfolios that explain historical returns in one of two sense, factor analysis models and principal-components models
Factor Analysis Models
Factors are the portfolios that best reproduce historical return covariances
Value at risk (VaR)
The minimum loss that would be expected a certain percentage of the time over a certain period of time given the assume market conditions
How many standard deviations below expected value is 5% VAR
1.65
How many standard deviations below expected value is 1% VAR
2.33
1 Standard Deviation below expected value is what % VAR
16%
Steps to estimate VaR using parametric method
1) multiply portfolio standard deviation by the number of standard deviations that correspond to the VaR
2) subtract the step 1 from daily expected return
3) take the absolute value of step 2
4) Multiple step 3 by portfolio value
Steps to estimate annual parametric VaR
1) find the corresponding annual std (daily std * sqrt(250)) and expected return (daily expected return * 250)
2) multiple annual std by number of standard deviations corresponding to the VaR
3) subtract that value from the annual expected return calculated in step 1
4) take absolute value of that figure
5) multiple that figure by the total portfolio value
Historical simulation method of VaR
uses the current portfolio and reprices it using the actual historical changes in the key factors experienced during the lookback period
- does not use expected return, standard deviation, or correlations
Conditional VaR
The weighted average of all loss outcomes in the return distribution that exceed the VaR loss
- answers the question, “How much can i expect to lose if VaR is exceed?”
- more comprehensive than VaR
- referred to as expected tail loss or expected shortfall
Incremental VaR (IVaR)
A measure of the incremental effect of an asset on the VaR of a portfolio by measuring the difference between the portfolio’s VaR while including a specified asset and the portfolio’s VaR with that asset eliminated
Marginal VaR (MVaR)
A measure of the effect of a small change in a position size on portfolio VaR
Delta
relationship between the option price and the underlying price
Gamma
2nd order, how sensitive delta is to change in the value of underlying
Vega
1st order, the change in the value of the derivative based off a change in the value of volatility
Pass/fail test
Stress tests used by companies that use leverage
Reverse stress testing
user identifies key risk exposures in the portfolio and subjects those exposures to extreme market movements
How often are securities in an ETF disclosed
daily
Creation basket
list of required in-kind securities published each day by the ETF sponsor
When an authorized participant transacts to create or redeem ETF shares, the related costs are borne by who
transacting shareholders
Smallest contributor to tracking error
Changes to the underlying index securities
Fund-Closure Risk
Risk that an ETF may shut down due to regulations, competition, and corporate action
Expectations-related risk
Risk that some ETF investors may not fully understand how more complex ETFs will perform
3 Assumptions of APT
1) A factor model describes asset returns
2) There are many assets, so investors can form well-diversified portfolios that eliminate asset-specific risk
3) No arb opportunities exist among well-diversified portfolios
Expected return when using macroeconomic factor model
the intercept (when all model factors take on a value of zero)
which of the factor models make minimal assumptions
statistical factor models
Two components of portfolio’s active return
factor tilt and security selection
What are the factors in macroeconomic factor model
surprises in macroeconomic data
In which model are standardized betas used
Fundamental factor models
Diversification reduces which part of a portfolio’s risk
active specific risk, the portfolio with the lowest active specific risk is the most diversified
Delta range of long call options
0 to 1
Delta range of short call options
0 to -1
Delta range of long put options
0 to -1
Delta range of short put options
0 to 1
Surplus at risk
application of VAR that estimates how much the assets might underperform liabilities with a given confidence level, usually over a year
Ex post vs ex ante tracking error
If tracking error is measured historically, it is ex post
If tracking error is predictive, it is ex ante
gross exposure
measures the combination of long and short exposures and can be an important metric in the management of hedge fund exposure