RFS Advance Access originally published online on March 16, 2006
Review of Financial Studies 2006 19(4):1113-1156; doi:10.1093/rfs/hhj039
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Dynamic Portfolio Choice with Parameter Uncertainty and the Economic Value of Analysts Recommendations
a Cvitani
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology
Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Finance Department, EDHEC
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
Address correspondence to Fernando Zapatero, FBE, Marshall School of Business, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1427, or email: fzapatero{at}marshall.usc.edu.
We derive a closed-form solution for the optimal portfolio of a nonmyopic utility maximizer who has incomplete information about the alphas or abnormal returns of risky securities. We show that the hedging component induced by learning about the expected return can be a substantial part of the demand. Using our methodology, we perform an "ex ante" empirical exercise, which shows that the utility gains resulting from optimal allocation are substantial in general, especially for long horizons, and an "ex post" empirical exercise, which shows that analysts recommendations are not very useful. (JEL C61, G11, G24)