44,861 research outputs found
Introduction to the special issue on neural networks in financial engineering
There are several phases that an emerging field goes through before it reaches maturity, and computational finance is no exception. There is usually a trigger for the birth of the field. In our case, new techniques such as neural networks, significant progress in computing technology, and the need for results that rely on more realistic assumptions inspired new researchers to revisit the traditional problems of finance, problems that have often been tackled by introducing simplifying assumptions in the past. The result has been a wealth of new approaches to these time-honored problems, with significant improvements in many cases
MQLV: Optimal Policy of Money Management in Retail Banking with Q-Learning
Reinforcement learning has become one of the best approach to train a
computer game emulator capable of human level performance. In a reinforcement
learning approach, an optimal value function is learned across a set of
actions, or decisions, that leads to a set of states giving different rewards,
with the objective to maximize the overall reward. A policy assigns to each
state-action pairs an expected return. We call an optimal policy a policy for
which the value function is optimal. QLBS, Q-Learner in the
Black-Scholes(-Merton) Worlds, applies the reinforcement learning concepts, and
noticeably, the popular Q-learning algorithm, to the financial stochastic model
of Black, Scholes and Merton. It is, however, specifically optimized for the
geometric Brownian motion and the vanilla options. Its range of application is,
therefore, limited to vanilla option pricing within financial markets. We
propose MQLV, Modified Q-Learner for the Vasicek model, a new reinforcement
learning approach that determines the optimal policy of money management based
on the aggregated financial transactions of the clients. It unlocks new
frontiers to establish personalized credit card limits or to fulfill bank loan
applications, targeting the retail banking industry. MQLV extends the
simulation to mean reverting stochastic diffusion processes and it uses a
digital function, a Heaviside step function expressed in its discrete form, to
estimate the probability of a future event such as a payment default. In our
experiments, we first show the similarities between a set of historical
financial transactions and Vasicek generated transactions and, then, we
underline the potential of MQLV on generated Monte Carlo simulations. Finally,
MQLV is the first Q-learning Vasicek-based methodology addressing transparent
decision making processes in retail banking
Risk, Unexpected Uncertainty, and Estimation Uncertainty: Bayesian Learning in Unstable Settings
Recently, evidence has emerged that humans approach learning using Bayesian updating rather than (model-free) reinforcement algorithms in a six-arm restless bandit problem. Here, we investigate what this implies for human appreciation of uncertainty. In our task, a Bayesian learner distinguishes three equally salient levels of uncertainty. First, the Bayesian perceives irreducible uncertainty or risk: even knowing the payoff probabilities of a given arm, the outcome remains uncertain. Second, there is (parameter) estimation uncertainty or ambiguity: payoff probabilities are unknown and need to be estimated. Third, the outcome probabilities of the arms change: the sudden jumps are referred to as unexpected uncertainty. We document how the three levels of uncertainty evolved during the course of our experiment and how it affected the learning rate. We then zoom in on estimation uncertainty, which has been suggested to be a driving force in exploration, in spite of evidence of widespread aversion to ambiguity. Our data corroborate the latter. We discuss neural evidence that foreshadowed the ability of humans to distinguish between the three levels of uncertainty. Finally, we investigate the boundaries of human capacity to implement Bayesian learning. We repeat the experiment with different instructions, reflecting varying levels of structural uncertainty. Under this fourth notion of uncertainty, choices were no better explained by Bayesian updating than by (model-free) reinforcement learning. Exit questionnaires revealed that participants remained unaware of the presence of unexpected uncertainty and failed to acquire the right model with which to implement Bayesian updating
Cognitive finance: Behavioural strategies of spending, saving, and investing.
Research in economics is increasingly open to empirical results. The advances in behavioural approaches are expanded here by applying cognitive methods to financial questions. The field of "cognitive finance" is approached by the exploration of decision strategies in the financial settings of spending, saving, and investing. Individual strategies in these different domains are searched for and elaborated to derive explanations for observed irregularities in financial decision making. Strong context-dependency and adaptive learning form the basis for this cognition-based approach to finance. Experiments, ratings, and real world data analysis are carried out in specific financial settings, combining different research methods to improve the understanding of natural financial behaviour. People use various strategies in the domains of spending, saving, and investing. Specific spending profiles can be elaborated for a better understanding of individual spending differences. It was found that people differ along four dimensions of spending, which can be labelled: General Leisure, Regular Maintenance, Risk Orientation, and Future Orientation. Saving behaviour is strongly dependent on how people mentally structure their finance and on their self-control attitude towards decision space restrictions, environmental cues, and contingency structures. Investment strategies depend on how companies, in which investments are placed, are evaluated on factors such as Honesty, Prestige, Innovation, and Power. Further on, different information integration strategies can be learned in decision situations with direct feedback. The mapping of cognitive processes in financial decision making is discussed and adaptive learning mechanisms are proposed for the observed behavioural differences. The construal of a "financial personality" is proposed in accordance with other dimensions of personality measures, to better acknowledge and predict variations in financial behaviour. This perspective enriches economic theories and provides a useful ground for improving individual financial services
Practical Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Stock Trading
Stock trading strategy plays a crucial role in investment companies. However,
it is challenging to obtain optimal strategy in the complex and dynamic stock
market. We explore the potential of deep reinforcement learning to optimize
stock trading strategy and thus maximize investment return. 30 stocks are
selected as our trading stocks and their daily prices are used as the training
and trading market environment. We train a deep reinforcement learning agent
and obtain an adaptive trading strategy. The agent's performance is evaluated
and compared with Dow Jones Industrial Average and the traditional min-variance
portfolio allocation strategy. The proposed deep reinforcement learning
approach is shown to outperform the two baselines in terms of both the Sharpe
ratio and cumulative returns
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