We propose a distributionally robust index tracking model with the
conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) penalty. The model combines the idea of
distributionally robust optimization for data uncertainty and the CVaR penalty
to avoid large tracking errors. The probability ambiguity is described through
a confidence region based on the first-order and second-order moments of the
random vector involved. We reformulate the model in the form of a min-max-min
optimization into an equivalent nonsmooth minimization problem. We further give
an approximate discretization scheme of the possible continuous random vector
of the nonsmooth minimization problem, whose objective function involves the
maximum of numerous but finite nonsmooth functions. The convergence of the
discretization scheme to the equivalent nonsmooth reformulation is shown under
mild conditions. A smoothing projected gradient (SPG) method is employed to
solve the discretization scheme. Any accumulation point is shown to be a global
minimizer of the discretization scheme. Numerical results on the NASDAQ index
dataset from January 2008 to July 2023 demonstrate the effectiveness of our
proposed model and the efficiency of the SPG method, compared with several
state-of-the-art models and corresponding methods for solving them