VWAP Execution as an Optimal Strategy

Abstract

The volume weighted average price (VWAP) execution strategy is well known and widely used in practice. In this study, we explicitly introduce a trading volume process into the Almgren-Chriss model, which is a standard model for optimal execution. We then show that the VWAP strategy is the optimal execution strategy for a risk-neutral trader. Moreover, we examine the case of a risk-averse trader and derive the first-order asymptotic expansion of the optimal strategy for a mean-variance optimization problem.