We provide a comprehensive overview of latent Markov (LM) models for the analysis of longitudinal data. The main assumption behind these models is that the response variables are conditionally independent given a latent process which follows a first-order Markov chain. We first illustrate the...

<Para ID="Par1">We provide a comprehensive overview of latent Markov (LM) models for the analysis of longitudinal categorical data. We illustrate the general version of the LM model which includes individual covariates, and several constrained versions. Constraints make the model more parsimonious and allow us...</para>

We propose a portfolio selection model based on a generalized hyperbolic predictive distribution. This distribution incorporates uncertainties in mean and volatility of market returns. We then select an optimal portfolio with expected utility calculated under the predictive distribution. We...