This paper presents an empirical comparative study of di fferent covariance estimators. The Engle-Colacito test is used for an indirect evaluation of alternative out-of-sample covariance forecasts in a portfolio setting for varying sample sizes, short selling constraints and market conditions....

Many financial decisions, such as portfolio allocation, risk management, option pricing and hedge strategies, are based on forecasts of the conditional variances, covariances and correlations of financial returns. The paper shows an empirical comparison of several methods to predict...

This paper addresses the open debate about the usefulness of high-frequency (HF) data in large-scale portfolio allocation. We consider the problem of constructing global minimum variance portfolios based on the constituents of the S&P 500 over a four-year period covering the 2008 financial...