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If I have three asset classes and their historical weekly returns for five years, how can I construct a minimum variance portfolio and an efficient frontier plot with Excel? To do that do I have to assume the return is normally distributed?

Update: there's a host of tutorials to plot the frontier for two assets as long as I have a table of say 10 possible weights of one asset. But with three assets or more plotting would be challenging as I have to come up with a much bigger table for the combination of the weights of these assets. As such I was wondering if there is some kind of simulation algorithm or any techniques to make it easier.

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  • $\begingroup$ lmgtfy.com/?q=minimum+variance+portfolio+excel $\endgroup$
    – vonjd
    Commented Jan 4, 2015 at 21:14
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    $\begingroup$ Hi nouveau, welcome to Quant.SE, as vonjd points out you have to show more effort to be on-topic here. $\endgroup$
    – Bob Jansen ♦
    Commented Jan 4, 2015 at 22:01
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    $\begingroup$ Hi Bob, sorry that I wasn't specific enough. As vonjd points out, there's a host of tutorials to plot the frontier for 2 assets as long as I have a table of say 10 possible weights of one asset. But with three assets or more plotting would be challenging as I have to come up with a much bigger table for the combination of the weights of these assets. As such I was wondering if there is some kind of simulation algorithm or any techniques to make it easier. $\endgroup$
    – nouveau
    Commented Jan 4, 2015 at 22:18
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    $\begingroup$ @nouveau: Then please edit your question accordingly and it will be considered for reopening :-) $\endgroup$
    – vonjd
    Commented Jan 5, 2015 at 8:49

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Yes, the assumption in MPT is normal distribution for returns.

You can programme yourself in R or Excel, following elementary linear algebra.

Eric Zivot (U Wash) has a spreadsheet solution here:

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