Narrow Results

In this paper, we study the Kelly criterion in the continuous time framework building on the work of E.O. Thorp and others. The existence of an optimal strategy is proven in a general setting and the corresponding optimal wealth process is found. A simple formula is provided for calculating the optimal portfolio in terms of drift, short term risk-free rate and correlations for a set of generic multi-dimensional diffusion processes satisfying some simple conditions. Properties of the optimal investment strategy are studied. The paper ends with a short discussion of the implications of these ideas for financial markets.

Entrepreneurship contributes significantly to economic growth and female entrepreneurs are strongly involved because their economic contribution is steadily increasing. However, research also reveals that female entrepreneurs face more financial barriers when compared to their male counterparts. Therefore, it is of prime importance to understand better female entrepreneurs’ behavior regarding financing. The purpose of this research was to explore gender differences related to financing with an intention to uncover why such differences exist. An empirical study involving a sample of 946 entrepreneurs from Canada and the United States was conducted to examine the issue. Results revealed that female entrepreneurs start their ventures with less capital than males, have a lesser tendency than males to obtain a bank loan and have a perception of being more in debt than their male counterparts are. Moreover, both variables depicting the smaller size of female-owned ventures and the intrinsic motivations expressed by female entrepreneurs acted as explanatory factors for the lower proportion of bank loans in the case of female-owned venture startups.

In this paper, we study the Kelly criterion in the continuous time framework building on the work of E.O. Thorp and others. The existence of an optimal strategy is proven in a general setting and the corresponding optimal wealth process is found. A simple formula is provided for calculating the optimal portfolio for a set of price processes satisfying some simple conditions. Properties of the optimal investment strategy for assets governed by multiple Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes are studied. The paper ends with a short discussion of the implications of these ideas for financial markets.