An integration method combining Rough Set Theory with formal concept analysis for personal investment portfolios

The classical Rough Set Theory (RST) always generates too many rules, making it difficult for decision makers to choose a suitable rule. In this study, we use two processes (pre process and post process) to select suitable rules and to explore the relationship among attributes. In pre process, we propose a pruning process to select suitable rules by setting up a threshold on the support object of decision rules, to thereby solve the problem of too many rules. The post process used the formal concept analysis from these suitable rules to explore the attribute relationship and the most important factors affecting decision making for choosing behaviours of personal investment portfolios. In this study, we explored the main concepts (characteristics) for the conservative portfolio: the stable job, less than 4 working years, and the gender is male; the moderate portfolio: high school education, the monthly salary between NT$30,001 (US$1000) and NT$80,000 (US$2667), the gender is male; and the aggressive portfolio: the monthly salary between NT$30,001 (US$1000) and NT$80,000 (US$2667), less than 4 working years, and a stable job. The study result successfully explored the most important factors affecting the personal investment portfolios and the suitable rules that can help decision makers. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.