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A framework for regime identification and asset allocation

The purpose of this thesis is to examine a regime-based asset allocation strategy and evaluate whether accounting for regime-dependent risk and return of asset classes provides any significant improvement on portfolio performance. The South African market and economy are considered as a proxy for th...

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Main Author: Kondlo, Mpumelelo
Other Authors: Bradfield, David
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Statistical Sciences 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Kondlo, Mpumelelo
author2 Bradfield, David
author_browse Bradfield, David
Kondlo, Mpumelelo
author_facet Bradfield, David
Kondlo, Mpumelelo
author_sort Kondlo, Mpumelelo
collection Thesis
description The purpose of this thesis is to examine a regime-based asset allocation strategy and evaluate whether accounting for regime-dependent risk and return of asset classes provides any significant improvement on portfolio performance. The South African market and economy are considered as a proxy for the analysis. Motivation of this thesis stems from the growing body of research by practitioners devoted to models that are reflective of the interdependency between financial assets and the real economy. The asset classes under consideration for the analysis are domestic and foreign cash, domestic and foreign bonds, domestic and foreign equity, inflation linked bonds, property, gold and commodities. In order to evaluate the performance of the regime-based strategy, this thesis proposes a framework based on Principal Component Analysis and Fuzzy Cluster Analysis for regime identification and asset allocation. The performance of the strategy is tested against two strategies that are not cognizant of regime changes. These are an equally weighted portfolio and a buy-and-hold strategy. Furthermore, relative performance analysis was performed by comparing the regime-based strategy proposed in this thesis against the Alexander Forbes Large Manager Watch Index. Due to data limitations, the analysis is done on an in-sample basis without an out-of-sample testing. The results from the analysis showed the extent of outperformance of the proposed regime-based strategy relative to an equally weighted strategy and a buy-and-hold strategy. These results were consistent with existing literature on regime-based strategies. Furthermore, the results provided strong motivation for the use of the regime identification framework together with tactical asset allocation proposed in this thesis.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:52:55.424Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
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publisher Department of Statistical Sciences
publisherStr Department of Statistical Sciences
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20475 A framework for regime identification and asset allocation Kondlo, Mpumelelo Bradfield, David Statistical Science The purpose of this thesis is to examine a regime-based asset allocation strategy and evaluate whether accounting for regime-dependent risk and return of asset classes provides any significant improvement on portfolio performance. The South African market and economy are considered as a proxy for the analysis. Motivation of this thesis stems from the growing body of research by practitioners devoted to models that are reflective of the interdependency between financial assets and the real economy. The asset classes under consideration for the analysis are domestic and foreign cash, domestic and foreign bonds, domestic and foreign equity, inflation linked bonds, property, gold and commodities. In order to evaluate the performance of the regime-based strategy, this thesis proposes a framework based on Principal Component Analysis and Fuzzy Cluster Analysis for regime identification and asset allocation. The performance of the strategy is tested against two strategies that are not cognizant of regime changes. These are an equally weighted portfolio and a buy-and-hold strategy. Furthermore, relative performance analysis was performed by comparing the regime-based strategy proposed in this thesis against the Alexander Forbes Large Manager Watch Index. Due to data limitations, the analysis is done on an in-sample basis without an out-of-sample testing. The results from the analysis showed the extent of outperformance of the proposed regime-based strategy relative to an equally weighted strategy and a buy-and-hold strategy. These results were consistent with existing literature on regime-based strategies. Furthermore, the results provided strong motivation for the use of the regime identification framework together with tactical asset allocation proposed in this thesis. 2016-07-20T06:52:16Z 2016-07-20T06:52:16Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20475 eng application/pdf Department of Statistical Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Statistical Science
Kondlo, Mpumelelo
A framework for regime identification and asset allocation
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A framework for regime identification and asset allocation
title_full A framework for regime identification and asset allocation
title_fullStr A framework for regime identification and asset allocation
title_full_unstemmed A framework for regime identification and asset allocation
title_short A framework for regime identification and asset allocation
title_sort framework for regime identification and asset allocation
topic Statistical Science
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20475
work_keys_str_mv AT kondlompumelelo aframeworkforregimeidentificationandassetallocation
AT kondlompumelelo frameworkforregimeidentificationandassetallocation