Kurtosis-based vs volatility-based asset allocation strategies: Do they share the same properties? A first empirical investigation

Abstract

Using a sample of international equity markets over the period 2001–2020, this paper aims to empirically investigate the implications in terms of asset allocation and the key properties of kurtosis-based strategies compared to the more traditional volatility-based strategies for financial portfolios construction. Furthermore, the contribution demonstrates that the portfolio recommended by the novel Kurtosis-based Risk Parity strategy introduced by Braga et al. (2023) admits to being interpreted as an intermediate portfolio between the Minimum-Kurtosis portfolio and the Equally Weighted portfolio in terms of the fourth root of the portfolio fourth moment.