We consider the classic Kelly gambling problem with general distribution of outcomes, and an additional risk constraint that limits the probability of a drawdown of wealth to a given undesirable level. We develop a bound on the drawdown probability; using this bound instead of the original risk constraint yields a conv…
The focal point of this paper is the so-called Kelly Criterion, a prescription for optimal resource allocation among a set of gambles which are repeated over time. The criterion calls for maximization of the expected value of the logarithmic growth of wealth. While significant literature exists providing the rationale …
Kelly betting is a prescription for optimal resource allocation among a set of gambles which are typically repeated in an independent and identically distributed manner. In this setting, there is a large body of literature which includes arguments that the theory often leads to bets which are "too aggressive" with resp…
It is well-known that there are a number of relations between theoretical finance theory and information theory. Some of these relations are exact and some are approximate. In this paper we will explore some of these relations and determine under which conditions the relations are exact. It turns out that portfolio the…
This paper optimizes sports betting strategies using neural networks and portfolio theory.
problem Optimizing betting strategies in sports gambling.
method Combining neural network models with portfolio optimization, integrating Von Neumann-Morgenstern Expected Utility Theory and the Kelly Criterion.
result Achieved 135.8% relative profit during the English Premier League season.
A quantum memory model for Kelly betting with amplified or attenuated outcomes.
problem Optimizing Kelly betting strategies with quantum memory elements.
method Semi-classical model using quantum memory to encode payoff, modeled as random lasing dynamics.
result Best strategy is to invest all capital in coherent state amplitude for optimal performance.
Myopic investors make suboptimal choices that benefit others, leading to market inefficiencies.
problem Myopic investors make suboptimal decisions that lag the market.
method Constrained optimisation and overlapping examples of different investor types.
result Myopic investors' suboptimal choices lead to market inefficiencies and profit opportunities for others.
Investing is a compression problem, maximizing growth by minimizing divergence.
problem Maximizing long-term wealth and minimizing risk of ruin in investing.
method Decomposes investing into three terms: money, entropy, and divergence. Uses Kelly Criterion and universal portfolio theory.
result Investing can be seen as a compression problem, with optimal strategies minimizing divergence.
Paper analyzes U.S. broker call rate laws of motion and their implications.
problem Understanding the dynamics and pricing of margin loans in the U.S. market.
method Analysis of monthly observations, derivation of stochastic differential equations, application of arbitrage theory.
result Margin loan interest rate follows mean-reverting behavior, with total call loan volume constituting over 70% of leveraged portfolios.
Study shows how margin loan interest rates converge to a choke price, limiting long-term advantage in the broker call money market.
problem Long-term dynamics of margin loan interest rates and their impact on retail clients' advantage in the broker call money market.
method Analyzes the broker call money market dynamics, assuming perfect inelastic supply and continuous reinvestment, to show convergence of relative size and margin loan interest rates.
result Margin loan interest rates converge to a choke price, limiting the long-term advantage of retail clients over the market.
ETHGamDet detects crypto gambling contracts and addresses.
problem Identifying crypto gambling contracts and addresses.
method Multi-modal retrieval methods, LightGBM model with memory components.
result ETHGamDet achieves high F1-scores in address and contract classification.
Study analyzes gambling behavior and risk attitudes using blockchain data.
problem Lack of real-life gambling data for validating predictions and experimental findings.
method Collects and analyzes betting data from a decentralized application on the Ethereum Blockchain.
result Empirical examples of gambling systems and insights into risk preferences.
Two studies explain high margin loan rates by brokers.
problem High margin loan rates charged by stock brokers.
method Two approaches: finite revisions and monopolistic pricing.
result Small differences in revision frequency or monopoly pricing can explain loan rates.
Optimal exit strategies of CPT gamblers in unfair gambles
problem Optimal exit strategies of gamblers with CPT preferences in games with strictly negative expected payoffs
method Formulating the problem as an optimal stopping problem on asymmetric random walks, applying geometric transformation, randomized strategies, and changing the decision variable
result The unfair problem in the infinite time horizon has finite values for a wide range of CPT parameter specifications
We study the capital growth in gambling with (and without) side information and memory effects. We derive several equalities for gambling, which are of similar form to the Jarzynski equality and its extension to systems with feedback controls. Those relations provide us with new measures to quantify the effects of info…
Study compares financial and gambling markets, finding similarities and potential applications.
problem Lack of comprehensive study on gambling markets compared to financial markets.
method Comprehensive comparison of five aspects: platform, product, procedure, participant, and strategy.
result Well-established financial strategies can be applied to gambling markets, particularly in peer-to-peer betting exchanges.
We determine Kelly criterion for a game with variable pay-off. The Kelly fraction satisfies a fundamental integral equation and is smaller than the classical Kelly fraction for the same game with the constant average pay-off.
Kelly investing improved with options to reduce estimation risk.
problem Estimation risk in Kelly investing leads to suboptimal portfolios.
method Introduced European options into the Kelly framework in a binomial model.
result Constructed growth optimal portfolios robust to estimation risk.
A new portfolio model improves on Kelly's by accounting for estimation error.
problem Estimation error in Kelly portfolio optimization.
method Wasserstein distributionally robust optimization (DRO) to define a robust log-optimal portfolio.
result The Wasserstein-Kelly portfolio outperforms the Kelly portfolio in out-of-sample testing.
We introduce and discuss a nonlinear kinetic equation of Boltzmann type which describes the evolution of wealth in a pure gambling process, where the entire sum of wealths of two agents is up for gambling, and randomly shared between the agents. For this equation the analytical form of the steady states is found for va…
We develop a general framework for applying the Kelly criterion to stock markets. By supplying an arbitrary probability distribution modeling the future price movement of a set of stocks, the Kelly fraction for investing each stock can be calculated by inverting a matrix involving only first and second moments. The fra…
This work shows how evaluation metrics can be seen as fair gambles.
problem The relationship and evaluation of machine learning forecasts.
method Using game-theoretic probability, the authors show evaluation metrics as fair gambles.
result Standard evaluation metrics are fair gambler outcomes, with calibration and regret metrics on two dimensions.
We investigate the use of Kelly's strategy in the construction of an optimal portfolio of assets. For lognormally distributed asset returns, we derive approximate analytical results for the optimal investment fractions in various settings. We show that when mean returns and volatilities of the assets are small and ther…
Develops a model for gambling decisions under time inconsistency.
problem Time inconsistency in gambling decisions due to probability weighting in CPT.
method Formulates the problem as a mathematical program, derives optimal precommitted rule.
result Gambler may enter the casino even with limited play, behavior varies based on gains/losses.
Extends Kelly Criterion to more complex betting scenarios.
problem Maximizing long-term growth in complex betting models.
method Generalizes Kelly Criterion to Lévy processes and high-frequency limits.
result Improved strategies for high-frequency betting.
This article is a prologue to the article "Why Markets are Inefficient: A Gambling 'Theory' of Financial Markets for Practitioners and Theorists." It presents important background for that article --- why gambling is important, even necessary, for real-world traders --- the reason for the superiority of the strategic/g…
The Kelly rule fails to maximize growth in a time-changed return setting.
problem Performance of the Kelly rule in a time-changed return process.
method Investigated the Kelly rule in a semi-martingale setting with a time change process.
result The Kelly rule does not maximize average growth rate in a non-normal log-return setting.
Paper introduces new risk measures for Kelly criterion.
problem Aggressive Kelly criterion investment strategy.
method Unified approach to risk assessment in Kelly criterion.
result Two new measures for quantifying risk.
Financial markets, with their vast range of different investment opportunities, can be seen as a system of many different simultaneous games with diverse and often unknown levels of risk and reward. We introduce generalizations to the classic Kelly investment game [Kelly (1956)] that incorporates these features, and us…
Kelly criterion, that maximizes the expectation value of the logarithm of wealth for bookmaker bets, gives an advantage over different class of strategies. We use projective symmetries for a explanation of this fact. Kelly's approach allows for an interesting financial interpretation of the Boltzmann/Shannon entropy. A…
Foster and Hart proposed an operational measure of riskiness for discrete random variables. We show that their defining equation has no solution for many common continuous distributions including many uniform distributions, e.g. We show how to extend consistently the definition of riskiness to continuous random variabl…
Paper approximates Kelly betting for wealth growth.
problem Optimizing wealth growth in Kelly betting.
method Taylor-based approximation for quadratic programming.
result Closed-form approximate solution with interesting properties.
Gambles are random variables that model possible changes in monetary wealth. Classic decision theory transforms money into utility through a utility function and defines the value of a gamble as the expectation value of utility changes. Utility functions aim to capture individual psychological characteristics, but thei…
This paper extends Kelly Criterion to include rebalancing frequency for optimal portfolio selection.
problem Optimizing a portfolio with multiple assets and varying rebalancing frequency.
method Using Kelly Criterion, the paper derives necessary and sufficient conditions for the frequency-based Kelly optimal portfolio.
result Proves the necessity and sufficiency of conditions for the frequency-based Kelly optimal portfolio.
Gamblers lose in long bets despite casino claims, study shows.
problem Gamblers losing in seemingly fair gambling scenarios.
method Theoretical and experimental analysis of two-armed Futurity slot machines.
result Casinos have a win rate greater than 50% in long bets, making them unfair.
Two entropy measures quantify suboptimal portfolio performance.
problem Measuring suboptimality in investment portfolios.
method Relative entropy (KL divergence) calculations.
result Suboptimal portfolios appear better than Kelly portfolios under certain measures.
PsychFM predicts individual gambling choices using psychological and machine learning models.
problem Predicting individual gambling choices with high precision.
method PsychFM combines machine learning and psychological theories.
result PsychFM outperforms existing models like random forest and factorization machines.
A new factor analysis method using ICA reduces portfolio concentration and diversifies excess kurtosis.
problem Standard factor analysis suffers from issues with pairwise correlations of asset returns.
method Identifies factors based on non-Gaussianity instead of variance, using ICA.
result Fat-tailed portfolios significantly reduce portfolio concentration and winner-takes-all problem.
Investment strategy using fractional Kelly portfolios for better growth expectations.
problem Understanding optimal growth strategies for investors with varying risk appetites.
method Developed a mathematical framework for fractional-Kelly portfolios, analyzing Sharpe ratios and log-returns.
result Fractional Kelly portfolios provide a simple distributional relationship between Sharpe ratio, fractional coefficient, and log-returns.
Two methods extend multivariate Kelly optimization to large problem sizes.
problem Optimizing wealth growth in multiple simultaneous bets.
method Integral transform for independent bets and decomposition-based approach.
result Scaling laws reveal subproblem size vs. solution accuracy.
Investigates sports betting strategies using modern portfolio theory and Kelly criterion.
problem Mitigating risk in sports betting investments.
method Modern portfolio theory and Kelly criterion, with modifications for practical risk control.
result Adaptive fractional Kelly method is suitable across various sports settings.
Optimizes financial decisions with illiquid assets using Kelly criterion.
problem Determining optimal betting strategies in games with external capital constraints.
method Dynamic programming and WKB approximation for multi-round games; Kelly criterion for single-round games.
result Rational players adjust their risk-taking based on the proportion of their capital locked away.
Kelly's Criterion is well known among gamblers and investors as a method for maximizing the returns one would expect to observe over long periods of betting or investing. These ideas are conspicuously absent from portfolio optimization problems in the financial and automation literature. This paper will show how Kelly'…
This paper discusses the gambling contest introduced in Seel & Strack (Gambling in contests, Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 375, Mar 2012.) and considers the impact of adding a penalty associated with failure to follow a winning strategy. The Seel & Strack model c…
One index satisfies the duality axiom if one agent, who is uniformly more risk-averse than another, accepts a gamble, the latter accepts any less risky gamble under the index. Aumann and Serrano (2008) show that only one index defined for so-called gambles satisfies the duality and positive homogeneity axioms. We call …
The Kelly Criterion is applied to prediction markets to analyze risk and return.
problem Mean beliefs in prediction markets often differ from actual prices.
method Logarithmic utility and Kullback-Leibler divergence are used to study risk and return adjustments.
result Misjudgment of bias and investment fraction affect portfolio growth rate.
Optimal Kelly strategy for multi-outcome parlay bets proven using implicit cash approach.
problem Finding optimal Kelly stakes for multi-outcome parlay bets.
method Eventwise Kelly strategy followed by outer product for full menu of bets. Uses implicit cash viewpoint.
result Optimal Kelly stakes for parlay bets factorize across events, with active leg criterion.
Solves the Sleeping Beauty problem as a 'thirder' using the Kelly Criterion.
problem Solving the Sleeping Beauty problem with imperfect recall.
method Using the Kelly Criterion under multiplicative dynamics to maximize wealth growth rate.
result Sleeping Beauty maximizes expected growth rate as a 'thirder' and is impervious to Dutch books.