A main advantage of the mean-variance (MV) portfolio frontier is its simplicity and ease of derivation. A major shortcoming, however, lies in its familiar restrictions, such as the quadraticity of preferences or the normality of distributions. As a workable alternative to MV, we present the...

This paper presents evidence that Ordinary Least Squares estimators of beta coefficients of major firms and portfolios are highly sensitive to observations of extremes in market index returns. This sensitivity is rooted in the inconsistency of the quadratic loss function in financial theory. By...

This paper introduces the concept of Marginal Conditional Stochastic Dominance (MCSD), which states the conditions under which all risk-averse individuals, when presented with a given portfolio, prefer to increase the share of one risky asset over that of another. MCSD rules also answer the...

Stochastic dominance rules provide necessary and sufficient conditions for characterizing efficient portfolios that suit all expected utility maximizers. For the finance practitioner, though, these conditions are not easy to apply or interpret. Portfolio selection models like the mean-variance...