Introduction to Portfolio Analysis in R

Asset returns and portfolio weights; those are the building blocks of a portfolio return. This chapter is about computing those portfolio weights and returns in R.

The history of portfolio returns reveals valuable information about how much the investor can expect to gain or lose. This chapter introduces the R functionality to analyze the investment performance based on a statistical analysis of the portfolio returns. It includes graphical analysis and the calculation of performance statistics expressing average return, risk, and risk-adjusted return over rolling estimation samples.

In addition to studying portfolio performance based on the observed portfolio return series, it is relevant to determine how individual (expected) returns, volatilities, and correlations interact to determine the total portfolio performance.

We have up to now considered the portfolio weights as given. In this chapter, you learn how to determine in R the portfolio weights that are optimal in terms of achieving a target return with minimum variance, while satisfying constraints on the portfolio weights.