Portfolio Optimization in Tehran Stock Exchange by Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA)

Portfolio selection is one of the vital financial challenges. This study seeks to apply the multi-objective water cycle algorithm (MOWCA) to find efficient frontiers associated with portfolio. This problem is non-linear multi-objective problem including maximiaing return and minimizing risk of portfolio. The inspired concept of WCA is based on the simulation of water cycle process in the nature. At the first time, it was applied by Moradi et al. (2017) for optimizating portfolio. Computational results are obtained for analyses of daily data for the period 2013 to 2015 including TSE 30. The performance of the MOWCA for solving portfolio optimization problems has been evaluated in comparison with other multi-objective optimizers including the MOGA and MOPSO. Four well-known performance metrics are used to compare the reported optimizers: GD, MS, S and ∆. Statistical optimization results indicate that the applied MOWCA is an efficient and practical optimizer compared with the other methods for handling portfolio optimization problems.