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I am trying to compute a small Black Litterman model in R. I am following a Youtube video and translating the excel implementation in R.

I have a var cov S matrix

              INTC          AEP          AMZN          MRK           XOM        ^GSPC
INTC  0.0119535151 0.0005721887  0.0072352418 0.0016447926  0.0005925077 0.0024795274
AEP   0.0005721887 0.0042225253  0.0008231236 0.0011854049  0.0010758889 0.0011941026
AMZN  0.0072352418 0.0008231236  0.0191091776 0.0009086193 -0.0002442391 0.0017836173
MRK   0.0016447926 0.0011854049  0.0009086193 0.0063486415  0.0009187387 0.0009943984
XOM   0.0005925077 0.0010758889 -0.0002442391 0.0009187387  0.0027747986 0.0009486789
^GSPC 0.0024795274 0.0011941026  0.0017836173 0.0009943984  0.0009486789 0.0012362303

Data:

S_cov_var <- structure(c(0.0119535151035911, 0.000572188710022071, 0.00723524182537011, 
0.00164479256302833, 0.000592507747499871, 0.00247952741729956, 
0.000572188710022071, 0.00422252526205478, 0.000823123610432928, 
0.00118540486616208, 0.00107588894445389, 0.00119410264013768, 
0.00723524182537011, 0.000823123610432928, 0.0191091775682989, 
0.000908619322530227, -0.000244239135715373, 0.00178361731695959, 
0.00164479256302833, 0.00118540486616208, 0.000908619322530227, 
0.00634864154256473, 0.000918738733973792, 0.00099439837734023, 
0.000592507747499871, 0.00107588894445389, -0.000244239135715373, 
0.000918738733973792, 0.00277479857981738, 0.000948678870995285, 
0.00247952741729956, 0.00119410264013768, 0.00178361731695959, 
0.00099439837734023, 0.000948678870995285, 0.00123623026419288
), .Dim = c(6L, 6L), .Dimnames = list(c("INTC", "AEP", "AMZN", 
"MRK", "XOM", "^GSPC"), c("INTC", "AEP", "AMZN", "MRK", "XOM", 
"^GSPC")))

I have a link matrix P:

       INTC AEP AMZN MRK XOM
View 1    0   1    0   0  -1
View 2    1   0   -1   0   0

Data:

P <- structure(c(0, 1, 1, 0, 0, -1, 0, 0, -1, 0), .Dim = c(2L, 5L), .Dimnames = list(
    c("View 1", "View 2"), c("INTC", "AEP", "AMZN", "MRK", "XOM"
    )))

I compute Omega as:

tau = 1
Omega = tau * P %*% S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5] %*% t(P)

I compute the first part of the formula as:

$$((\tau S)^{-1} + P^{T}\Omega^{-1}P)^{-1}$$

first <- ((tau * S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5])^(-1) + (t(P) %*% Omega^(-1) %*% P))^(-1)

Then the second part of the formula as:

$$(\tau S)^{-1}\pi + P^{T}\Omega^{-1}Q$$

Data:

Q <- c(0.01, 0.0175)   # uncertainty about my views

implied_equilib_excess_rets <- structure(c(0.00933950373355221, 0.0031834850342374, 0.00648459638783838, 
0.00560398430525973, 0.00578609504932214), .Dim = c(5L, 1L), .Dimnames = list(
    c("INTC", "AEP", "AMZN", "MRK", "XOM"), NULL))

Calculation:

second <- (tau * S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5])^(-1) %*% implied_equilib_excess_rets[,1] + (t(P) %*% (Omega^(-1)) %*% Q)

Which gives me the result (for the second part):

          [,1]
INTC 12.274655
AEP  21.034321
AMZN -3.885805
MRK  22.681126
XOM  14.381804

Which is completely wrong.

I have checked all my figures up until this point and they almost match the video I am following (he uses adjusted Yahoo prices I use Closing prices since the video is a few years old). I expect the results to not match but they do not match by a long way. For example the expected output should be (for the second part)

INTC  1.175
AEP   2.304
AMZN -1.074
MRK   0.448
XOM  -0.431

Minute 11:27 here shows how the second part of the formula should look like.

Additional:

Here is a dump of the R code I have from the excel video (I get pretty close results based on the video output until the second part of the code):

library(tsibble)
library(tidyverse)
library(tidyquant)

start_date <- "2002-01-01"
end_date <- "2007-08-01"
symbols <- c("INTC", "AEP", "AMZN", "MRK",  "XOM", "^GSPC")


portfolio_prices <- tq_get(
  symbols,
  from = start_date,
  to = end_date,
) %>% 
  select(symbol, date, close)

portfolio_monthly_prices <- portfolio_prices %>% 
  group_by(symbol) %>% 
  tq_transmute(
    select = close,
    mutate_fun = to.period,
    period = "months"
  ) %>% 
  pivot_wider(names_from = symbol, values_from = close) %>% 
  tk_xts(., date_var = date)


portfolio_monthly_returns <- portfolio_prices %>% 
  group_by(symbol) %>% 
  tq_transmute(
    select = close,
    mutate_fun = periodReturn,
    period = "monthly",                           
    type = "log",
  ) %>% 
  pivot_wider(names_from = symbol, values_from = monthly.returns) %>% 
  tk_xts(., date_var = date)


portfolio_monthly_returns[,1:5]

Asset_Ave_Rets <- colMeans(portfolio_monthly_returns[, 1:5])
Market_Ave_Rets <- colMeans(portfolio_monthly_returns[, 6])
Market_variance <- var(portfolio_monthly_returns[, 6])


obs <- nrow(portfolio_monthly_returns) - 1

S_cov_var <- as.matrix(cov(portfolio_monthly_returns))

Variance <- diag(S_cov_var)
StandardDev <- sqrt(Variance)

lambda = c(1.5, 1.5, 1.5, 1.5, 1.5)

Market_caps <- data.frame(
  stock = c("INTC", "AEP", "AMZN", "MRK", "XOM"),
  mkt_cap = c(153.42, 19.2, 36.62, 125.5, 505.49)
) %>% 
mutate(
    market_weights = mkt_cap / sum(mkt_cap)
  )

weights <- as.vector(Market_caps$market_weights)

implied_equilib_excess_rets <- 2*c(lambda) * (S_cov_var[1:5, 1:5] %*% weights[1:5]) # AKA pi
implied_equilib_excess_rets


#VIEW 1: AP outperforms exxon mobile by 1% per month
#VIEW 2: Intel outperforms Amazon by 1.75 % per month
Q <- c(0.01, 0.0175)

VIEWS = matrix(data = 0, nrow = 2, ncol = ncol(S_cov_var[,1:5]))
rownames(VIEWS) = c(paste("View", seq(1:2)))  
colnames(VIEWS) = colnames(S_cov_var[, 1:5])
# Fill out the link matrix

VIEWS[1, 2] <- 1 
VIEWS[1, 5] <- -1

VIEWS[2, 1] <- 1
VIEWS[2, 3] <- -1

P = as.matrix(VIEWS) # link matrix

tau = 1
Omega = tau * P %*% S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5] %*% t(P)  # uncertainty associated with our views
Omega

# black litterman formula

# part 1:
# expected returns calculation

first <- ((tau * S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5])^(-1) + (t(P) %*% Omega^(-1) %*% P))^(-1)
first
# part 2:
second <- (tau * S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5])^(-1) %*% implied_equilib_excess_rets[,1] + (t(P) %*% (Omega^(-1)) %*% Q)
second
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  • $\begingroup$ I'm seeing this at school and I really want to learn more about Black-Litterman. Is there any chance you have the finished code for me to understand better the topic. $\endgroup$
    – Nalleli
    Commented Jan 30 at 0:02

1 Answer 1

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I had a quick look at your code and it seems like you are applying the inverse function incorrectly in your calculations. For example, in the second equation I did the following changes:

sub1 = tau * S_cov_var[1:5 ,1:5]
Isub1 = solve(sub1)

IOmega = solve(Omega)

second <- (Isub1 %*% implied_equilib_excess_rets[,1] + (t(P) %*% IOmega %*% Q))

Which returns the following:

> second
           [,1]
INTC  1.7555493
AEP   2.4034124
AMZN -1.0770208
MRK   0.4480916
XOM  -0.5300325

I hope this is what you are looking for. Otherwise let me know.

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