aiqbench analysis
This research demonstrates how end-to-end differentiable optimization can effectively navigate non-stationary financial markets by embedding risk metrics like CVaR directly into neural network training. By bypassing error-prone predict-then-optimize pipelines, the study shows that AttentionLSTM models can achieve robust outperformance during adverse regime shifts while managing transaction costs realistically. The core contribution lies in proving that direct loss function optimization yields economically meaningful results where traditional forecasting methods fail.
Financially Guided Deep Portfolio Optimization
arXiv:2605.28853v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Portfolio optimization in real-world financial markets is notoriously difficult due to non-stationarity, noisy data, and high transaction costs. Standard predict-then-optimize methods first forecast returns and then solve for weights, compounding prediction errors and often failing under regime shifts. We propose an end-to-end framework that directly optimizes differentiable surrogates of key financial metrics (Sharpe ratio, Omega ratio, Conditional Value-at-Risk, and risk parity), allowing neural networks to learn portfolio weights via backpropagation. Our expanding-window walk-forward procedure, applied to 50 S&P 500 stocks from 2007 to 2023, incorporates realistic bid-ask spread costs and rebalances quarterly. On the challenging out-of-sample test period (2022-2023), the best model, an AttentionLSTM with the Omega-CVaR-RiskParity loss, achieves an annualized Sharpe of 0.29 and a total compounded return of +7.86%, while the S&P 500 delivers -4.52% total compounded return and an annualized Sharpe of -0.02. This outperforms the S&P 500 by 12.38 percentage points, while keeping tail risk (CVaR) nearly unchanged. The framework outperforms the equal-weight portfolio, S&P 500, and traditional methods (MVP, HRP, NCO, ERC), demonstrating that embedding financial objectives directly into model training yields robust, economically meaningful outperformance even in adverse market conditions.
Abstract:Portfolio optimization in real-world financial markets is notoriously difficult due to non-stationarity, noisy data, and high transaction costs. Standard predict-then-optimize methods first forecast returns and then solve for weights, compounding prediction errors and often failing under regime shifts. We propose an end-to-end framework that directly optimizes differentiable surrogates of key financial metrics (Sharpe ratio, Omega ratio, Conditional Value-at-Risk, and risk parity), allowing neural networks to learn portfolio weights via backpropagation. Our expanding-window walk-forward procedure, applied to 50 S&P 500 stocks from 2007 to 2023, incorporates realistic bid-ask spread costs and rebalances quarterly. On the challenging out-of-sample test period (2022-2023), the best model, an AttentionLSTM with the Omega-CVaR-RiskParity loss, achieves an annualized Sharpe of 0.29 and a total compounded return of +7.86%, while the S&P 500 delivers -4.52% total compounded return and an annualized Sharpe of -0.02. This outperforms the S&P 500 by 12.38 percentage points, while keeping tail risk (CVaR) nearly unchanged. The framework outperforms the equal-weight portfolio, S&P 500, and traditional methods (MVP, HRP, NCO, ERC), demonstrating that embedding financial objectives directly into model training yields robust, economically meaningful outperformance even in adverse market conditions.
8 pages, 4 figures. Presented at the IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Financial Engineering and Economics (CIFEr 2026)
Portfolio Management (q-fin.PM); Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2605.28853 [q-fin.PM]
(or arXiv:2605.28853v2 [q-fin.PM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.28853 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
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