The maximum entropy method was originally proposed as a variational technique to determine probability densities from the knowledge of a few expected values. The applications of the method beyond its original role in statistical physics are manifold. An interesting feature of the method is its...

Risk neutral measures are defined such that the basic random assets in a portfolio are martingales. Hence, when the market model is complete, to value any instrument having the basic assets as underlying is, in principle, an easy task. For the determination of the risk neutral measure, it is...

A solution to a portfolio optimization problem is always conditioned by constraints on the initial capital and the price of the available market assets. If a risk neutral measure is known, then the price of each asset is the discounted expected value of the asset's price under this measure. But...

During the last few years, there has been an interest in comparing simple or heuristic procedures for portfolio selection, such as the naive, equal weights, portfolio choice, against more "sophisticated" portfolio choices, and in explaining why, in some cases, the heuristic choice seems to...

We propose the following criterion for comparing two portfolios: Portfolio A is {it better in probability} than portfolio B, whenever P(a b) 1/2, where a and b stand for the random returns of portfolio A and B, respectively. This criterion is both straightforward to interpret by the...

The analysis of loss data is of utmost interest in many branches of the financial and insurance businesses, in structural engineering and in operations research among others. In the financial industry the determination of the distribution of losses is the first step to take in order to compute...

We present some results of the application of maximum entropy methods to determine the probability density of compound random variables. This problem is very important in the banking and insurance business, but also appears in system reliability and in operations research. The mathematical tool...