On an investment-consumption model with transaction costs: an asymptotic analysis

In this paper we examine the Akian, Menaldi and Sulem (1996) model for the optimal management of a portfolio, when there are transaction costs which are equal to a fixed percentage of the amount transacted. We analyse this model in the realistic limit of small transaction costs. Although the full problem is a free boundary diffusion problem in as many dimensions as there are assets in the portfolio, we find explicit solutions for the optimal trading policy in this limit. This makes the solution for a realistically large number of assets a practical possibility.