Internal multi-portfolio rebalancing processes: Linking resource allocation models and biproportional matrix techniques to portfolio management

Abstract

This paper describes multi-portfolio internal rebalancing processes used in the finance industry. Instead of trading with the market to externally rebalance, these internal processes detail how portfolio managers buy and sell between their portfolios to rebalance. We give an overview of currently used internal rebalancing processes, including one known as the banker process and another known as the linear process. We prove the banker process disadvantages the nominated banker portfolio in volatile markets, while the linear process may advantage or disadvantage portfolios.We describe an alternative process that uses the concept of market-invariance. We give analytic solutions for small cases, while in general show that the n-portfolio solution and its corresponding 'market-invariant' algorithm solve a system of nonlinear polynomial equations. It turns out this algorithm is a rediscovery of the RAS algorithm (also called the iterative proportional fitting procedure) for biproportional matrices. We show that this process is more equitable than the banker and linear processes, and demonstrate this with empirical results.The market-invariant process has already been implemented by industry due to the significance of these results.