We demonstrate a computer program that designs a portfolio consisting of common securities, such as the constituents of the S&P 500 index, that achieves any desired profile via in-sample backtest optimization. Unfortunately, the program also shows that these portfolios typically perform...

With the advent in recent years of large financial data sets, machine learning and high-performance computing, analysts can backtest millions (if not billions) of alternative investment strategies. Backtest optimizers search for combinations of parameters that maximize the simulated historical...

The Growth-Optimal Portfolio (GOP) theory determines the path of bet sizes that maximize long-term wealth. This multi-horizon goal makes it more appealing among practitioners than myopic approaches, like Markowitz's mean-variance or risk parity. The GOP literature typically considers...

Successful investment strategies are specific implementations of general theories. An investment strategy that lacks a theoretical justification is likely to be false. Hence, an asset manager should concentrate her efforts on developing a theory rather than on backtesting potential trading...