Solving realistic portfolio optimization problems via metaheuristics: a survey and an example

Computational finance has become one of the emerging application fields of metaheuristic algorithms. In particular, these optimization methods are quickly becoming the solving approach alternative when dealing with realistic versions of financial problems, such as the popular portfolio optimization problem (POP). This paper reviews the scientific literature on the use of metaheuristics for solving rich versions of the POP and illustrates, with a numerical example, the capacity of these methods to provide high-quality solutions to complex POPs in short computing times, which might be a desirable property of solving methods that support real-time decision making