Hedge or Rebalance: Optimal Risk Management with Transaction Costs

Semyon Malamud
2018
Journal paper

We solve the problem of optimal risk management for an investor holding an illiquid, alpha-generating fund and hedging his/her position with a liquid futures contract. When the investor is subject to a lower bound on net return, he/she is forced to reduce the total risk of his/her portfolio after a loss. In this case, he/she faces a tradeoff of either paying the transaction costs and deleveraging or keeping his/her current position in the illiquid instrument and hedging away some of the risk while keeping the residual, unhedgeable risk on his/her balance sheet. We explicitly characterize this tradeoff and study its dependence on asset characteristics. In particular, we show that higher alpha and lower beta typically widen the no-trading zone, while the impact of volatility is ambiguous.

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Semyon Malamud
2018
Journal paper

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/263653?ln=en

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Related concepts (7)

Risk

In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environment), often focusing on negative, undesirable consequences. Many different definitions have been proposed. The international standard definition of risk for common understanding in different applications is "effect of uncertainty on objectives".

Balance sheet

In financial accounting, a balance sheet (also known as statement of financial position or statement of financial condition) is a summary of the financial balances of an individual or organization, whether it be a sole proprietorship, a business partnership, a corporation, private limited company or other organization such as government or not-for-profit entity. Assets, liabilities and ownership equity are listed as of a specific date, such as the end of its financial year.

Investor

An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Types of investments include equity, debt, securities, real estate, infrastructure, currency, commodity, token, derivatives such as put and call options, futures, forwards, etc. This definition makes no distinction between the investors in the primary and secondary markets.