This new edited volume consists of a collection of original articles written by leading financial economists and industry experts in the area of machine learning for asset management. The chapters introduce the reader to some of the latest research developments in the area of equity, multi-asset and factor investing. Each chapter deals with new methods for return and risk forecasting, stock selection, portfolio construction, performance attribution and transaction costs modeling. This volume will be of great help to portfolio managers, asset owners and consultants, as well as academics and students who want to improve their knowledge of machine learning in asset management.

Successful investment strategies are specific implementations of general theories. An investment strategy that lacks a theoretical justification is likely to be false. Hence, an asset manager should concentrate her efforts on developing a theory rather than on backtesting potential trading rules. The purpose of this Element is to introduce machine learning (ML) tools that can help asset managers discover economic and financial theories. ML is not a black box, and it does not necessarily overfit. ML tools complement rather than replace the classical statistical methods. Some of ML's strengths include (1) a focus on out-of-sample predictability over variance adjudication; (2) the use of computational methods to avoid relying on (potentially unrealistic) assumptions; (3) the ability to "learn" complex specifications, including nonlinear, hierarchical, and noncontinuous interaction effects in a high-dimensional space; and (4) the ability to disentangle the variable search from the specification search, robust to multicollinearity and other substitution effects.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has grown in presence in asset management and has revolutionized the sector in many ways. It has improved portfolio management, trading, and risk management practices by increasing efficiency, accuracy, and compliance. In particular, AI techniques help construct portfolios based on more accurate risk and return forecasts and more complex constraints. Trading algorithms use AI to devise novel trading signals and execute trades with lower transaction costs. AI also improves risk modeling and forecasting by generating insights from new data sources. Finally, robo-advisors owe a large part of their success to AI techniques. Yet the use of AI can also create new risks and challenges, such as those resulting from model opacity, complexity, and reliance on data integrity.

This textbook covers the latest advances in machine learning methods for asset management and asset pricing. Recent research in deep learning applied to finance shows that some of the (usually confidential) techniques used by asset managers result in better investments than the more standard techniques. Cutting-edge material is integrated with mainstream finance theory and statistical methods to provide a coherent narrative. Coverage includes an original machine learning method for strategic asset allocation; the no-arbitrage theory applied to a wide portfolio of assets as well as other asset management methods, such as mean-variance, Bayesian methods, linear factor models, and strategic asset allocation; recent techniques such as neural networks and reinforcement learning, and more classical ones, including nonlinear and linear programming, principal component analysis, dynamic programming, and clustering. The authors use technical and nontechnical arguments to accommodate readers with different levels of mathematical preparation. The book is easy to read yet rigorous and contains a large number of exercises. Machine Learning for Asset Management and Pricing is intended for graduate students and researchers in finance, economics, financial engineering, and data science focusing on asset pricing and management. It will also be of interest to finance professionals and analysts interested in applying machine learning to investment strategies and asset management. This textbook is appropriate for courses on asset management, optimization with applications, portfolio theory, and asset pricing.

Make AI technology the backbone of your organization to compete in the Fintech era The rise of artificial intelligence is nothing short of a technological revolution. AI is poised to completely transform asset management and investment banking, yet its current application within the financial sector is limited and fragmented. Existing AI implementations tend to solve very narrow business issues, rather than serving as a powerful tech framework for next-generation finance. Artificial Intelligence for Asset Management and Investment provides a strategic viewpoint on how AI can be comprehensively integrated within investment finance, leading to evolved performance in compliance, management, customer service, and beyond. No other book on the market takes such a wide-ranging approach to using AI in asset management. With this guide, you’ll be able to build an asset management firm from the ground up—or revolutionize your existing firm—using artificial intelligence as the cornerstone and foundation. This is a must, because AI is quickly growing to be the single competitive factor for financial firms. With better AI comes better results. If you aren’t integrating AI in the strategic DNA of your firm, you’re at risk of being left behind. See how artificial intelligence can form the cornerstone of an integrated, strategic asset management framework Learn how to build AI into your organization to remain competitive in the world of Fintech Go beyond siloed AI implementations to reap even greater benefits Understand and overcome the governance and leadership challenges inherent in AI strategy Until now, it has been prohibitively difficult to map the high-tech world of AI onto complex and ever-changing financial markets. Artificial Intelligence for Asset Management and Investment makes this difficulty a thing of the past, providing you with a professional and accessible framework for setting up and running artificial intelligence in your financial operations.

Machine learning (ML) is changing virtually every aspect of our lives. Today ML algorithms accomplish tasks that until recently only expert humans could perform. As it relates to finance, this is the most exciting time to adopt a disruptive technology that will transform how everyone invests for generations. Readers will learn how to structure Big data in a way that is amenable to ML algorithms; how to conduct research with ML algorithms on that data; how to use supercomputing methods; how to backtest your discoveries while avoiding false positives. The book addresses real-life problems faced by practitioners on a daily basis, and explains scientifically sound solutions using math, supported by code and examples. Readers become active users who can test the proposed solutions in their particular setting. Written by a recognized expert and portfolio manager, this book will equip investment professionals with the groundbreaking tools needed to succeed in modern finance.

This book introduces machine learning methods in finance. It presents a unified treatment of machine learning and various statistical and computational disciplines in quantitative finance, such as financial econometrics and discrete time stochastic control, with an emphasis on how theory and hypothesis tests inform the choice of algorithm for financial data modeling and decision making. With the trend towards increasing computational resources and larger datasets, machine learning has grown into an important skillset for the finance industry. This book is written for advanced graduate students and academics in financial econometrics, mathematical finance and applied statistics, in addition to quants and data scientists in the field of quantitative finance. Machine Learning in Finance: From Theory to Practice is divided into three parts, each part covering theory and applications. The first presents supervised learning for cross-sectional data from both a Bayesian and frequentist perspective. The more advanced material places a firm emphasis on neural networks, including deep learning, as well as Gaussian processes, with examples in investment management and derivative modeling. The second part presents supervised learning for time series data, arguably the most common data type used in finance with examples in trading, stochastic volatility and fixed income modeling. Finally, the third part presents reinforcement learning and its applications in trading, investment and wealth management. Python code examples are provided to support the readers' understanding of the methodologies and applications. The book also includes more than 80 mathematical and programming exercises, with worked solutions available to instructors. As a bridge to research in this emergent field, the final chapter presents the frontiers of machine learning in finance from a researcher's perspective, highlighting how many well-known concepts in statistical physics are likely to emerge as important methodologies for machine learning in finance.