Mean-variance models for portfolio selection with fuzzy random returns

Abstract

This paper develops two novel types of mean-variance models for portfolio selection problems, in which the security returns are assumed to be characterized by fuzzy random variables with known possibility and probability distributions. In the proposed models, we take the expected return of a portfolio as the investment return and the variance of the expected return of a portfolio as the investment risk. We assume that the security returns are triangular fuzzy random variables. To solve the proposed portfolio problems, this paper first presents the variance formulas for triangular fuzzy random variables. Then this paper applies the variance formulas to the proposed models so that the original portfolio problems can be reduced to nonlinear programming ones. Due to the reduced programming problems include standard normal distribution in the objective functions, we cannot employ the conventional solution methods to solve them. To overcome this difficulty, this paper employs genetic algorithm (GA) to solve them, and verify the obtained optimal solutions via Kuhn-Tucker (K-T) conditions. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models and methods.