Implementation Efficiency

An analysis of risk, covariance, and correlation is used to measure the implementation losses that arise as a result of transaction costs and investment constraints. Losses are measured relative to an ideal, costless, and unconstrained implementation. The figure of merit is mean-variance expected utility expressed as portfolio alpha minus penalties for active variance and transaction costs. In a general setting, before-cost results are found that define the opportunity loss and identify its sources. In a specific case, after-cost results are found that enable prediction of how expected utility and information ratios are influenced by the investment process, information turnover, risk aversion, and transaction costs.