We derive an estimator for Black-Scholes-Merton implied volatility that, when compared to the familiar Corrado amp; Miller [JBaF, 1996] estimator, has substantially higher approximation accuracy and extends over a wider region of moneyness

In fixed income analysis, duration plays a central role as a proxy for interest rate risk exposure. Although this role relies on the interpretation of duration as (minus) the yield elasticity of the bond price, duration is measured as a bond's present value weighted average time to maturity and...

Financial-economic decisions are normally aimed at making decisions consciously, with a clear and permanent drive to good, better or even optimal decisions. Unfortunately, many decisions in practice are at least partially flawed, despite the availability of financial economic theory, decision...

When delegating an investment decisions to a professional manager, investors often anchor their mandate to a specific benchmark. The manager's exposure to risk is controlled by means of a tracking error volatility constraint. It depends on market conditions whether this constraint is easily met...

In this paper we explore the theoretical and empirical problems of estimating average(excess) return and risk of US equities over various holding periods and sampleperiods. Our findings are relevant for performance evaluation, for estimating thehistorical equity risk premium, and for investment...

In this paper we explore the relevance of dividends in the total equity return over longer time horizons. In addition, we investigate the effects of different reinvestment assumptions of dividends. We use a unique set of revised and corrected US equity data series, comprising monthly prices and...

Large institutional investors allocate their funds over a number of classes (e.g. equity, fixed income and real estate), various geographical regions and different industries. In practice, these allocation decisions are usually made in a hierarchical (top-down), consecutive way. At the higher...

Most financial-economic decisions are made consciously, with a clear and constant drive to ???good???, ???better??? or even ???optimal??? decisions. Nevertheless, many decisions in practice do not earn these qualifications, despite the availability of financial economic theory, decision sciences...

For people working in finance, either in academia or in practice or in both,the combination of ?finance? and ?multiple criteria? is not obvious. However,we believe that many of the tools developed in the field of MCDM can contribute both to the quality of the financial economic decision...

In this paper we present and illustrate using real-life data a framework for managing an investment portfolio in which the investment opportunities are described in terms of a set of attributes and part of this set is intended to capture the effects on society. Here we link with the emerging...