A trivial critique of Modern Portfolio Theory

Oct 11, 2009 16:00

Modern portfolio theory has a fair amount to offer: Combining investments with different properties really can outperform a concentrated portfolio ( Read more... )

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Re: Time jon_leonard October 12 2009, 04:27:05 UTC
I had assumed equal durations on the two investments, as otherwise the shorter one has an obvious advantage. If one has a shorter minimum investment time than the other, then liquidity preference is relevant, yes. The observed pattern is that the markets tend to overpay for liquidity ... which is, of course, outside the scope of straightforward Modern Portfolio Theory.

In short, a lot of things matter about an investment, and trying it distill it down to a small set of numbers loses something important.

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Re: Time beth_leonard October 12 2009, 05:21:45 UTC
As Jon commented, I think he assumed the same time frame for both investments, but even still, in investment #1, if you reinvest everything and "let it ride" each time:

For investment #1, lets say the time horizon is 5 years to get ( ... )

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