English

Multifactor Risk Models and Heterotic CAPM

Portfolio Management 2016-09-12 v2 Risk Management

Abstract

We give a complete algorithm and source code for constructing general multifactor risk models (for equities) via any combination of style factors, principal components (betas) and/or industry factors. For short horizons we employ the Russian-doll risk model construction to obtain a nonsingular factor covariance matrix. This generalizes the heterotic risk model construction to include arbitrary non-industry risk factors as well as industry risk factors with generic "weights". The aim of sharing our proprietary know-how with the investment community is to encourage organic risk model building. The presentation is intended to be essentially self-contained and pedagogical. So, stop wasting money and complaining, start building risk models and enjoy!

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1602.04902,
  title  = {Multifactor Risk Models and Heterotic CAPM},
  author = {Zura Kakushadze and Willie Yu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.04902},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

49 pages; one reference updated; to appear in The Journal of Investment Strategies. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1508.04883

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:50:55.752Z