In this post I am going to be looking at portfolio optimisation methods, touching on both the use of Monte Carlo, “brute force” style optimisation and then the use of Scipy’s “optimize” function for “minimizing (or maximizing) objective functions, possibly subject to constraints”, as it states in the official docs (https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/optimize.html).
I have to apologise at this point for my jumping back and forth between the UK English spelling of the word “optimise” and the US English spelling (optimize)…my fingers just won’t allow me to type it with a “z” unless I absolutely have to, for some reason!!! When quoting the official docs or referring to the actual function itself I shall use a “z” to fall in line.
To set up the first part of the problem at hand – say we are building, or have a portfolio of stocks, and we wish to balance/rebalance our holdings in such as way that they match the weights that would match the “optimal” weights if “optimal” meant the portfolio with the highest Sharpe ratio, also known as the “mean-variance optimal” portfolio.