Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) has arose as an important paradigm to address the issue of distributional ambiguity in decision optimization. In its standard form, DRO seeks an optimal solution against the worst-possible expected value evaluated based on a set of candidate...

Electricity retailers face increasing uncertainty due to the ongoing expansion of unpredictable, distributed generation in the residential sector. We analyze how increasing levels of households' solar PV self-generation affect the short-term decisionmaking and associated risk exposure of...

A portfolio of independent, but not identically distributed, returns is optimized under the variance risk measure, in the high-dimensional limit where the number N of the different assets in the portfolio and the sample size T are assumed large with their ratio r=N/T kept finite, with a ban on...

A financial model is a model designed to represent in mathematical terms the relationships among the variables of a financial problem so that it can be used to make projections and/or answer ‘what if' questions. In particular, financial modeling can be combined with optimization modeling to...

This paper examines the effectiveness of using futures contracts as hedging instruments of: (1) alternative models of volatility for estimating conditional variances and covariances; (2) alternative currencies; and (3) alternative maturities of futures contracts. For this purpose, daily data of...

This paper considers optimal reinsurance based on an assessment of the reinsurance arrangements for a large life insurer. The objective is to determine the reinsurance structure, based on actual insurer data, using a modified mean-variance criteria that maximises the retained premiums and...

The paper examines the performance of four multivariate volatility models, namely CCC, VARMA-GARCH, DCC and BEKK, for the crude oil spot and futures returns of two major benchmark international crude oil markets, Brent and WTI, to calculate optimal portfolio weights and optimal hedge ratios, and...

We consider the basic problem of refi tting a time series over a finite period of time and formulate it as a stochastic dynamic program. By changing the underlying Markov decision process we are able to obtain a model that at optimality considers historical data as well as forecasts of future...