This part first shows why the acceptable sets in the real world may be nonconvex. Then the non-cash risk measure is introduced. Some properties of the new measure are also studied. Next the extension of the nonconvex risk function is given. At last the relationship of this extension and the initial non-cash risk measure function is discussed.
3.1. Introductions of Non-Cash Risk Measure
Given the probability space and denote by ℵ the sets of the random variable . The random variable represents the discounted net value of an investment strategy defined on the probability space. The definition of is the set of all possible natural states. is the value of the position when the state is .
An acceptable set of the risk measure is defined as a set of portfolios that do not require any monetary adjustments, that is
. Compared with the traditional acceptable sets of risk measures, there are friction costs in this model, which is represented as
where
represents the transaction costs of the
asset.
The risk measure in the friction market is defined as
, where
is a coherent risk measure in the frictionless market. This formula means the risk of the position is contained by the cash added to make it acceptable and the extra cost of purchasing the position. Then the corresponding acceptable set derived from
by Formula (
1) may not be convex because of the unknown cost functions.
We define a portfolio in which each component represents the amount of investment in different types of assets. The n represents the total number of assets. Given tacit consent to , , is the unit vector , that means, if any amount of the component increases, the total risk of the portfolio becomes smaller.
In this paper, a new concept: non-cash risk measure is proposed. This measure uses all kinds of assets in the market to adjust the position. While avoiding the problem of cash limitations, non-cash risk measure gives an optimal solution of the adjusted position.
The definition of the non-cash risk measure is defined by the distance from the effective boundary of the portfolio to the acceptable set. Using the definition in Vakili J. (2017) [
8] for reference, the non-cash risk measure is defined as follows.
where
Then the corresponding risk measure can be simplified to
where
,
.
This measure indicates that if the position x is outside the acceptable set, there exists a point y in the acceptable set such that the distance from the point x to the acceptable point y can be regarded as a risk-adjusted method. The amount of asset adjustment required by this method can be expressed by norm. The measure defined in this paper requires finding the distance between x and points in acceptable sets, which is the distance of position x from the efficient boundary of the acceptable sets. The non-cash risk measure solves actually an optimization problem and gives the optimal solution to adjust the initial position. The risk of the position is defined by the least amount of assets adjusted to make the position acceptable.
Through the definition of
by Formula (8), it can be easily figured out that
, because
This inequality shows that the risk hedging method given by the non-cash risk measure is better than that given by the coherent risk measure.
If is the optimal solution of the optimization problem , then the moving path along the directions of axes from x to is the best solution to transfer the risky portfolio to the acceptable sets. The solution uses the least amount of assets .
3.2. Properties of Non-Cash Risk Measure
First we check if the non-cash risk measure still satisfies the four axioms defining coherent risk measures.
Monotonicity: If , then . Through the definition of the portfolio above, the measurement of non-cash risk also satisfies this property.
Cash-additivity: For every constant , there exists .
Cash-additivity is also called translation invariance. This axiom means that if cash is added to an asset, the reduction in risk is equal to the increase in cash. Because the risk measure in this paper is not based on cash adjustment only, this axiom is not always true in the risk measure defined in this paper.
When the marginal risk reduction in the portfolio is optimal for cash, it can be determined that the non-cash risk measurement satisfies the translation invariance.
Proposition 2. If , that is the same as , then the non-cash risk measure satisfies the cash-additivity.
Proof of Proposition 2 To prove that translation invariance
is satisfied, first it is needed to check
where
,
is the optimal solution of the first optimization problem,
is the optimal solution of the second optimization problem.
That means to proof .
Next check if is the same point as .
Since is the optimal solution of the second optimization problem, then if , we have , . That means the proof of .
Simplify the inequality above, we have , which is obviously true due to the definition of .
Thus the proof is complete. □
Positive Homogeneity: .
The non-cash risk measure does not satisfy this axiom because the cost is added to the model and the cost function may be nonlinear. For example, if is a portfolio, where , , , is a constant, then the portfolio does not satisfy the positive homogeneity.
Subadditivity: .
The non-cash risk measure also satisfies this axiom. The proof is as follows.
Proposition 3. If ρ is a non-cash risk measure, then it satisfies .
Proof of Proposition 3 If
is the optimal solution of
,
is the optimal solution of
,
the optimal solution of
. From the tacit consent
given above, it is apparently that
Since
, where
is the optimal solution of optimization problem
, then
Thus the proof is finished. □
Proposition 4. In addition, the non-cash risk measure also satisfies the monotonicity of the partial derivative: If , then .
Proof of Proposition 4 Let proof by contradiction.
If , that is , since , , , then is contradictory to the assumption. However, it is found that the risk measure does not satisfy convexity. A counterexample of convexity is given below. If , since the acceptable set is a nonconvex set, there exists , such that . In this condition, there exists , contradictory to . □
3.3. Extension of Non-Cash Risk Measure
Since the risk measure is not a convex function and solves an optimization problem, first a convex risk measure function derived from the extension of the risk measure is given. Then the relationship between the convex risk measure and the original non-cash risk measure is studied. In reference to the use of the concave hull in Lepinette et al. (2015) [
9], we define the convex risk measure as follows:
where
is the biggest convex hull of
.
Obviously, the measure function has the following properties.
,
Subadditivity: ,
Convexity: , .
The following studies the relationship of and .
Lemma 1. Denote , then is a convex function.
Proof of Lemma 1 That is , which implies that satisfies the linear condition.
Denote and such that , then .
Define
has the optimal solution of
, and
has the optimal solution which is
, and
has the optimal solution of
, then
When
,
is also sub- additive. Then
Which means is a convex function. □
Theorem 1. If a non-cash risk measure is a measure defined on a non-convex acceptable set and is a convex extension of , the following formula holds: Proof of Theorem 1 By Lemma 1 and the definition of , it is clear that .
If , then . When , denote , then and we have . When , denote , then we have , that is . After all, .