On the Bayesian Interpretation of Black-Litterman

We present the most general model of the type considered by Black and Litterman (1991) after fully clarifying the duality between Black–Litterman optimization and Bayesian regression. Our generalization is itself a special case of a Bayesian network or graphical model. As an example, we work out in full detail the treatment of views on factor risk premia in the context of APT. We also consider a more speculative example in which the portfolio manager specifies a view on realized volatility by trading a variance swap.

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