Robust exploratory mean-variance problem with drift uncertainty

Abstract

We solve a min-max problem in a robust exploratory mean-variance problem with drift uncertainty in this paper. It is verified that robust investors choose the Sharpe ratio with minimal $L^2$ norm in an admissible set. A reinforcement learning framework in the mean-variance problem provides an exploration-exploitation trade-off mechanism; if we additionally consider model uncertainty, the robust strategy essentially weights more on exploitation rather than exploration and thus reflects a more conservative optimization scheme. Finally, we use financial data to backtest the performance of the robust exploratory investment and find that the robust strategy can outperform the purely exploratory strategy and resist the downside risk in a bear market.