Empirical study finds variance swap rate is affine in spot variance for S&P500 data.
problem Investigating the relationship between variance swap rate and spot variance.
method Empirical analysis using S&P500 data from 2006-2018, testing different models.
result Affine relationship between variance swap rate and spot variance is supported.
Paper tackles unknown variances in best-arm identification.
problem Identifying the best arm with unknown variances in Gaussian distributions.
method Two approaches: empirical variance plugging or adapting transportation costs.
result The impact of unknown variances is small on sample complexity.
We study the problem of empirical minimization for variance-type functionals over functional classes. Sharp non-asymptotic bounds for the excess variance are derived under mild conditions. In particular, it is shown that under some restrictions imposed on the functional class fast convergence rates can be achieved incl…
We give improved constants for data dependent and variance sensitive confidence bounds, called empirical Bernstein bounds, and extend these inequalities to hold uniformly over classes of functionswhose growth function is polynomial in the sample size n. The bounds lead us to consider sample variance penalization, a nov…
Sharp inequalities for matrix means with unknown variance.
problem Estimating matrix means with unknown variance.
method Empirical Bernstein inequalities for symmetric random matrices.
result Adapts to unknown variance with tight deviation bounds.
We develop an approach to risk minimization and stochastic optimization that provides a convex surrogate for variance, allowing near-optimal and computationally efficient trading between approximation and estimation error. Our approach builds off of techniques for distributionally robust optimization and Owen's empiric…
Paper analyzes high-dimensional portfolio risks and finds empirical out-of-sample relative loss is more reliable.
problem Analyzing risks in high-dimensional portfolios using empirical variance.
method Derives asymptotic behavior of out-of-sample variance and relative loss in high-dimensional settings.
result Empirical out-of-sample relative loss is more reliable than variance in high-dimensional portfolios.
Robust portfolio optimization considers uncertainty in market probabilities.
problem Uncertainty in market probabilities in multiperiod portfolio selection.
method Robust mean-variance optimization using Wasserstein ball centered at empirical data.
result Numerical simulations show improved performance compared to other strategies.
This paper tackles variance issues in GNN training by proposing a method to reduce both embedding and gradient variances.
problem High variance in estimating stochastic gradients in GNN training, especially in large graphs.
method The paper proposes a decoupled variance reduction strategy that employs approximate gradient information to adaptively sample nodes with minimal variance.
result The proposed method achieves faster convergence and better generalization compared to existing sampling methods.
The bias-variance tradeoff tells us that as model complexity increases, bias falls and variances increases, leading to a U-shaped test error curve. However, recent empirical results with over-parameterized neural networks are marked by a striking absence of the classic U-shaped test error curve: test error keeps decrea…
We study the variance of the REINFORCE policy gradient estimator in environments with continuous state and action spaces, linear dynamics, quadratic cost, and Gaussian noise. These simple environments allow us to derive bounds on the estimator variance in terms of the environment and noise parameters. We compare the pr…
Variational approaches based on neural networks are showing promise for estimating mutual information (MI) between high dimensional variables. However, they can be difficult to use in practice due to poorly understood bias/variance tradeoffs. We theoretically show that, under some conditions, estimators such as MINE ex…
We present novel minibatch stochastic optimization methods for empirical risk minimization problems, the methods efficiently leverage variance reduced first-order and sub-sampled higher-order information to accelerate the convergence speed. For quadratic objectives, we prove improved iteration complexity over state-of-…
Delta Variances efficiently estimate epistemic uncertainty in neural networks.
problem Mitigating uncertainty in neural networks with limited data.
method Delta Variances, a computationally efficient algorithm for epistemic uncertainty quantification.
result Empirically competitive results with a single gradient computation.
RL approach for continuous-time mean-variance portfolio selection with empirical validation.
problem Continuous-time mean-variance portfolio selection in unknown market coefficients.
method Reinforcement learning for diffusion processes, sublinear regret bound derivation.
result RL strategy consistently outperforms model-based counterparts, especially in volatile markets.
Paper tackles heavy-tailed data without finite variance, proposing robust risk minimization.
problem Empirical risk minimization under heavy-tailed data with finite p-th moment. method Minimizes risk values robustly estimated via Catoni's method, using generalized generic chaining.
result Shows better performance of optimizer based on empirical risks via Catoni-style estimation.
The paper optimizes RV estimation by efficient sampling in time-changed diffusion models.
problem Improving realized variance (RV) estimation in time-changed diffusion models.
method Theoretical analysis and simulations of hitting time and realized business time sampling schemes.
result Realized business time sampling is empirically most efficient for high noise levels.
MEVA aggregates model predictions to improve accuracy without needing model details.
problem Improving model accuracy by combining multiple models.
method Non-intrusive, data-driven framework that treats models as black boxes and optimizes aggregation methods.
result MVA outperforms MEA in estimating aggregated predictions, enhancing robustness and accuracy.
Ensembles improve classifier performance by reducing bias, not variance.
problem Improving classifier performance through ensemble methods.
method Extended bias-variance decomposition for classification tasks, introducing dual reparameterization.
result Ensembling reduces bias in classifiers, contrary to the traditional view.
Study sharp convergence rates of empirical UOT for spatio-temporal point processes.
problem Statistical analysis of UOT for spatio-temporal point processes.
method Empirical plug-in estimators for Kantorovich-Rubinstein distance between intensity measures.
result Sharp convergence rates of empirical UOT in terms of intrinsic dimensions of measures.
We study optimization algorithms based on variance reduction for stochastic gradient descent (SGD). Remarkable recent progress has been made in this direction through development of algorithms like SAG, SVRG, SAGA. These algorithms have been shown to outperform SGD, both theoretically and empirically. However, asynchro…
Paper shows ERM's suboptimality due to bias, not variance.
problem Understanding why ERM fails to achieve optimal rates.
method Probabilistic and admissibility proofs for ERM in various settings.
result ERM's suboptimality is due to bias, not variance.
The paper develops algorithms to minimize misallocation and identify the arm with the highest variance.
problem Minimizing misallocation and identifying the arm with the highest variance from a set of arms.
method Developed novel online algorithms UCB-VV for misallocation minimization and SHVV for fixed budget best arm identification.
result The algorithms achieve optimal performance in terms of misallocation and error probability.
Increasing variance of losses improves learning with noisy labels.
problem Learning with noisy labels and the need to penalize variance of losses.
method Designing regularizers based on the label noise transition matrix to increase variance of losses.
result Increasing variance of losses significantly improves generalization ability.
This paper presents a novel approach for approximate integration over the uncertainty of noise and signal variances in Gaussian process (GP) regression. Our efficient and straightforward approach can also be applied to integration over input dependent noise variance (heteroscedasticity) and input dependent signal varia…
The paper uses the variance-gamma model to price options and explain excess kurtosis.
problem Explaining excess kurtosis in stock price data.
method Random-time subordination, Laplace distribution, Esscher transform.
result The variance-gamma model explains excess kurtosis in log-returns data.
Paper develops efficient algorithms for robust optimization across multiple groups.
problem Minimizing maximal empirical risk across distinct groups in robust optimization.
method Develops ALEG and ALEM algorithms for two-level finite-sum convex-concave minimax optimization.
result Achieves ε-accuracy with complexity O(m√(nlnm/ε)) and outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
SVRN accelerates Newton methods by reducing variance and improving performance.
problem Improving the efficiency of Newton methods for large-scale optimization problems.
method Stochastic Variance-Reduced Newton (SVRN) algorithm that accelerates Subsampled Newton and Iterative Hessian Sketch algorithms.
result SVRN accelerates Newton methods by reducing the number of passes over the data, achieving a significant improvement in performance.
Study finds adding more information to robust option pricing does not improve bounds.
problem Exploring robust pricing of financial claims using minimal assumptions.
method Empirical study of variance options, incorporating intermediate market data.
result Incorporating more information does not improve robust pricing bounds.
Before training a neural net, a classic rule of thumb is to randomly initialize the weights so the variance of activations is preserved across layers. This is traditionally interpreted using the total variance due to randomness in both weights \emph{and} samples. Alternatively, one can interpret the rule of thumb as pr…
Study finds short-term instability in financial ARCH models.
problem Short-term stability of financial ARCH models.
method Analyzes quadratic ARCH processes using historical data and empirical innovations.
result Empirical innovations have variance significantly above 1, indicating short-term instability.
The paper analyzes a five-parameter Variance-Gamma model for European option pricing.
problem Developing a stochastic volatility model for accurate European option pricing.
method Introduced a five-parameter Variance-Gamma model and applied it to empirical data.
result The five-parameter VG model produces underpriced OTM and overpriced ITM options compared to the Black-Scholes model.
Memory-efficient algorithm reduces variance in off-policy RL.
problem High variance in off-policy policy optimization.
method Memory-efficient, stochastically variance-reduced algorithm using off-policy samples.
result Empirically validated effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Kernel-smoothed scores improve diffusion models by reducing memorization.
problem Diffusion models can memorize training data, leading to biased samples.
method Interpret empirical score as noisy version of true score, kernel-smoothed.
result Kernel-smoothing reduces variance and improves generalization.
VarGrad reduces variance in ELBO gradient estimation for variational inference.
problem Improving the variance of gradient estimators in variational inference.
method VarGrad uses a new log-variance loss to estimate the ELBO gradient, achieving lower variance than the score function method.
result VarGrad offers a lower variance gradient estimator compared to other methods.
OSIRIS reduces variance in off-policy evaluation by omitting irrelevant states.
problem High variance in importance sampling-based OPE estimators.
method OSIRIS reduces variance by omitting likelihood ratios associated with states irrelevant to return.
result OSIRIS is unbiased and has lower variance than ordinary importance sampling.
Deep learning models show bias and variance are aligned, not in trade-off.
problem The classical bias-variance trade-off in deep learning models.
method Empirical evidence and theoretical analysis of bias and variance in deep learning models.
result Squared bias is approximately equal to variance for correctly classified sample points in deep learning models.
Study compares parametric and Hermite-based models for option pricing.
problem Empirical performance of option price estimators.
method Examines parametric and nonparametric models, focusing on variance-gamma and Heston models.
result Hermite-based models can outperform Heston model in pricing errors.
Improved PAC-Bayesian bounds by considering example difficulty.
problem Improving generalization bounds in machine learning.
method Introducing a modified excess risk that leverages example difficulty to reduce variance and tighten PAC-Bayesian bounds.
result Tighter PAC-Bayesian generalization bounds for machine learning models.
Investigates the long-only minimum variance portfolio in factor models.
problem Understanding the long-only minimum variance portfolio in factor models.
method Investigates the long-only global minimum variance portfolio in a factor model of returns, providing explicit and geometric descriptions for different factor models.
result Provides rigorous and explicit descriptions of the long-only solution in terms of covariance matrix parameters and geometric descriptions for multiple factors.
This work improves variational inference by reducing gradient variance.
problem Hard optimization of flexible variational distributions.
method Control variate based on quadratic approximation of the model's mean and covariance.
result Significant improvement in gradient variance and optimization convergence.
We analyze the variance of Fisher information estimators in deep learning models.
problem Understanding the variance of Fisher information in deep learning models.
method Investigated two unbiased and consistent estimators of Fisher information matrix.
result The variance of estimators is influenced by the model's parametric structure.
Proposes reducing random error in stochastic optimization by variance regularization.
problem Random error accumulation in stochastic optimization algorithms.
method Regularizes learning-rate based on mini-batch variances.
result Speeds up convergence and stabilizes stochastic optimization.
Variance reduction methods such as SVRG and SpiderBoost use a mixture of large and small batch gradients to reduce the variance of stochastic gradients. Compared to SGD, these methods require at least double the number of operations per update to model parameters. To reduce the computational cost of these methods, we i…
This paper proposes a new integrated variance estimator based on order statistics within the framework of jump-diffusion models. Its ability to disentangle the integrated variance from the total process quadratic variation is confirmed by both simulated and empirical tests. For practical purposes, we introduce an itera…
Improved bounds for Monte Carlo Rademacher Averages using self-bounding functions.
problem Proving sharper concentration bounds for MCERA.
method Deriving new bounds through self-bounding functions and concentration of measure.
result Novel bounds depend on data-dependent quantities, improving over standard methods.
Mini-batch stochastic gradient descent and variants thereof have become standard for large-scale empirical risk minimization like the training of neural networks. These methods are usually used with a constant batch size chosen by simple empirical inspection. The batch size significantly influences the behavior of the …
Study of discrete-time mean-variance model using reinforcement learning.
problem Discrete-time model with more general return distribution assumptions.
method Entropy-based exploration cost, reinforcement learning algorithm design.
result Optimal investment strategy with Gaussian density function.