Multivariate dependence and portfolio optimization algorithms under illiquid market scenarios

We propose a model for optimizing structured portfolios with liquidity-adjusted Value-at-Risk (LVaR) constraints, whereby linear correlations between assets are replaced by the multivariate nonlinear dependence structure based on Dynamic conditional correlation t-copula modeling. Our portfolio optimization algorithm minimizes the LVaR function under adverse market circumstances and multiple operational and financial constraints. When considering a diversified portfolio of international stock and commodity market indices under multiple realistic portfolio optimization scenarios, the obtained results consistently show the superiority of our approach, relative to other competing portfolio strategies including the minimum-variance, risk-parity and equally weighted portfolio allocations. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.