An algorithm for maximizing expected log investment return

Let the random (stock market) vectorX geq 0be drawn according to a known distribution functionF(x), x in R^{m}. A log-optimal portfoliob^{ast}is any portfoliobachieving maximal expectedlogreturnW^{ast}=sup_{b} E ln b^{t}X, where the supremum is over the simplexb geq 0, sum_{i=1}^{m} b_{i} = 1. An algorithm is presented for findingb^{ast}. The algorithm consists of replacing the portfoliobby the expected portfoliob^{'}, b_{i}^{'} = E(b_{i}X_{i}/b^{t}X), corresponding to the expected proportion of holdings in each stock after one market period. The improvement inW(b)after each iteration is lower-bounded by the Kullback-Leibler information numberD(b^{'}|b)between the current and updated portfolios. Thus the algorithm monotonically improves the returnW. An upper bound onW^{ast}is given in terms of the current portfolio and the gradient, and the convergence of the algorithm is established.