06 — Portfolio Construction

Mean-Variance Optimization#

Efficient Frontier✓ Mathematical
◆ The PatternMarkowitz efficient frontier — balance return against portfolio variance

The 1952 Markowitz framework maximizes expected return for a given level of risk (or minimizes variance for a target return). The efficient frontier traces optimal portfolios.

min ½ w′ Σ w   s.t.   w′ μ ≥ rtarget,   w′ 1 = 1
Estimation error in μ and Σ makes raw MVO unstable — shrinkage estimators (Ledoit-Wolf) and resampling improve robustness. The tangency portfolio maximizes the Sharpe ratio.
// Interactive — risk aversion and efficient frontier
Risk aversion
ApproachFix
ShrinkageReduce estimation noise in Σ
ResamplingAverage across bootstrapped frontiers
Black-LittermanBlend views with equilibrium priors
Pattern bridge: Quadratic programming appears in ML Math — Optimization.
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