All Questions
93
votes
19answers
24k views
What data sources are available online?
What sources of financial and economic data are available online? Which ones are free or cheap? What has your experience been like with these data sources?
48
votes
15answers
3k views
What concepts are the most dangerous ones in quantitative finance work?
There are a few things that form the common canon of education in (quantitative) finance, yet everybody knows they are not exactly true, useful, well-behaved, or empirically supported.
So here is the ...
48
votes
15answers
6k views
Video lectures and presentations on quantitative finance
What are your favourite video lectures, presentations and talks available online?
A few rules:
Must be related to quantitative finance. No Economics 101 courses, please.
Try to avoid DIY lectures ...
36
votes
7answers
5k views
Innovative ways of visualizing financial data
Finance is drowning in a deluge of data. Humans are not very good at comprehending large amounts of data. One way out may be visualization.
Traditional ways of visualizing patterns, complexities and ...
32
votes
10answers
12k views
How can I go about applying machine learning algorithms to stock markets?
I am not very sure, if this question fits in here.
I have recently begun, reading and learning about machine learning. Can someone throw some light onto how to go about it or rather can anyone share ...
31
votes
10answers
10k views
Switching from C++ to R - limitations/applications
I've only recently begun exploring and learning R (especially since Dirk recommended RStudio and a lot of people in here speak highly of R). I'm rather C(++) oriented, so it got me thinking - what are ...
30
votes
5answers
5k views
Efficiently storing real-time intraday data in an application agnostic way
What would be the best approach to handle real-time intraday data storage?
For personal research I've always imported from flat files only into memory (historical EOD), so I don't have much ...
29
votes
5answers
1k views
Lévy alpha-stable distribution and modelling of stock prices.
Since Mandelbrot, Fama and others have performed seminal work on the topic, it has been suspected that stock price fluctuations can be more appropriately modeled using Lévy alpha-stable distrbutions ...
28
votes
16answers
23k views
What programming languages are most commonly used in quantitative finance?
What programming languages are the most common in quantitative finance, and why are these languages used?
Note: I do not mean, what languages are used to develop the accounting system at a hedge ...
27
votes
6answers
2k views
Paradoxes in quantitative finance
Everyone seems to agree that the option prices predicted by the Black-Merton-Scholes model are inconsistent with what is observed in reality. Still, many people rely on the model by using "the wrong ...
26
votes
12answers
23k views
Why is C++ still a very popular language in quantitative finance? [closed]
I had to ask this question after reading the answers to What programming languages are most commonly used in quantitative finance? I understand that C++ programs can be optimized pretty well and are ...
26
votes
5answers
1k views
What are the key risks to the quantitative strategy development process?
Prompted in part by this question on data snooping, I would be interested to know:
What are the key risks that should be considered when developing a quantitative strategy based on: (a) historical ...
26
votes
6answers
3k views
Which approach dominates? Mathematical modeling or data mining?
According to my current understanding, there is a clear difference between data mining and mathematical modeling.
Data mining methods treat systems (e.g., financial markets) as a "black box". The ...
25
votes
7answers
6k views
How useful is the genetic algorithm for financial market forecasting?
There is a large body of literature on the "success" of the application of evolutionary algorithms in general, and the genetic algorithm in particular, to the financial markets.
However, I feel ...
25
votes
6answers
4k views
What broker/feed/APIsetup allows for recording the most accurate data (cheaply)?
I'm currently using IB's Java API and getting feeds through them. However the real-time feed is updated only every 250ms and the historical feed only every second.
I'm primarily looking for ES data ...
23
votes
8answers
1k views
Option pricing before Black-Scholes
According to the Wikipedia article,
Contracts similar to options are believed to have been used since ancient times.
In London, puts and "refusals" (calls) first became well-known trading ...
23
votes
6answers
2k views
What are the popular methodologies to minimize data snooping?
Are there common procedures prior or posterior backtesting to ensure that a quantitative trading strategy has real predictive power and is not just one of the thing that has worked in the past by pure ...
23
votes
5answers
2k views
How do I graphically represent the evolution of a covariance matrix over time?
I am working with a set of covariance matrices evaluated at various points in time over some history. Each covariance matrix is $N\times N$ for $N$ financial time-series over $T$ periods. I would ...
23
votes
3answers
1k views
What papers have progressed the field of quantitative finance in recent years (post 2000)?
My question is pretty simple: what papers do you feel are foundational to quantitative finance? I'm compiling a personal reading list already, drawn from Wilmott forums, papers referenced in ...
23
votes
4answers
903 views
Are there any new Option pricing models?
Back in the mid 90's I used the Black-Scholes Model and the Cox-Ross-Rubenstein (Binomial) Model's to price Options. That was nearly 15 years ago and I was wondering if there are any new models being ...
22
votes
10answers
3k views
Separating the wheat from the chaff: What quant methods separate skillful managers from lucky ones?
Fund managers are acting in a highly stochastic environment. What methods do you know to systematically separate skillful fund managers from those that were just lucky?
Every idea, reference, paper ...
22
votes
6answers
5k views
How are correlation and cointegration related?
In what ways (and under what circumstances) are correlation and cointegration related, if at all? One difference is that one usually thinks of correlation in terms of returns and cointegration in ...
22
votes
3answers
4k views
How can we reverse engineer a market-making algorithm (HFT)?
Consider a market participant $A$ who is mechanically following an automated liquidity providing algorithm (HFT) in a number of large cap stocks on a specific exchange.
Assume furthermore that we are ...
22
votes
2answers
2k views
What is the difference between the methods for calculating VaR?
There are three different commonly used Value at Risk (VaR) methods:
Historical method
Variance-Covariance Method
Monte Carlo
What is the difference between these approaches, and under what ...
22
votes
1answer
1k views
Is my trading strategy search methodology sound?
I'm building an algorithmic trading business. I'd be grateful for informed comments and opinions on my trading strategy search methodology.
Goal
Develop (profitable!) fully automated intra-day ...
21
votes
9answers
3k views
How 'High' is the frequency in HFT?
How many trades per second are we talking about?
What kind of strategies are used in this time frame?
Can the small guy play the game?
21
votes
9answers
5k views
Why does the minimum variance portfolio provide good returns?
I've been a researching minimum variance portfolios (from this link) and find that by building MVPs adding constraints on portfolio weights and a few other tweaks to the methods outlined I get ...
21
votes
4answers
2k views
Random matrix theory (RMT) in finance
The new kid on the block in finance seems to be random matrix theory. Although RMT as a theory is not so new (about 50 years) and was first used in quantum mechanics it being used in finance is a ...
21
votes
9answers
2k views
Has high frequency trading (HFT) been a net benefit or cost to society?
Various studies have demonstrated the very large and growing influence of high frequency trading (HFT) on the markets. HFT firms are clearly making a great deal of money from somewhere, and it stands ...
21
votes
2answers
2k views
How useful is Markov chain Monte Carlo for quantitative finance?
Naively, it seems that Bayesian modeling, structural models particularly, would be quite useful in finance because of their ability to incorporate market idiosyncrasies and produce accurate ...
21
votes
1answer
2k views
What is the role of stochastic calculus in day-to-day trading?
I work with practical, day-to-day trading: just making money. One of my small clients recently hired a smart, new MFE. We discussed potential trading strategies for a long time. Finally, he expressed ...
19
votes
6answers
2k views
How good is managed code for algo trading?
I am currently working in a firm that does algo trading. We do all of our stuff in Java. And we do make money out of it. We have debates all the time whether we would have made more money with native ...
19
votes
11answers
4k views
Is F# used in trading systems?
Similar to this other question about Scala, I'm interested in knowing whether F# is used to any measurable degree in financial circles. Have there been any successful shops using it, any research on ...
19
votes
8answers
5k views
Digital Signal Processing in Trading
There is a concept of trading or observing the market with signal processing originally created by John Ehler. He wrote three books about it.
Cybernetic Analysis for Stocks and Futures
Rocket Science ...
19
votes
6answers
3k views
What type of investor is willing to be short gamma?
As far as I understand, most investors are willing to buy options (puts and calls) in order to limit their exposure to the market in case it moves against them. This is due to the fact that they are ...
19
votes
5answers
2k views
Why is an inverted yield curve a problem?
Immediately preceding the worst of the financial crisis, my professors all pointed out to me that the yield curve had inverted -- short-term yields were more risky than 20-year or 30-year Treasury ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
How do you mix quantitative asset allocation with qualitative views?
Usually in asset allocation you have a quantitative approach (which can be from example mean-variance), but you (or you and your firm) also have a more qualitative approach given market-conditions, ...
18
votes
5answers
3k views
What is a good broker for HFT?
Currently I trade trough IB. I run my HFT strategies (100 roundtrips per hour) but I think that latency is killing me and my profits are shrinking. I need the fastest possible brokers out there which ...
18
votes
4answers
2k views
Trading a synthetic replication of the VIX index
One cannot directly buy and sell the VIX index. Theoretically, however, one could approximate the index by purchasing an at-the-money straddle on the SP500, then delta-hedging the straddle.
Does ...
18
votes
4answers
2k views
Why do high frequency traders use rapidly cancelled limit orders?
In reading about the various practices and strategies of high frequency traders, one of the most mysterious to me is "fleeting orders," or orders that are cancelled almost immediately after they are ...
18
votes
3answers
619 views
How can an ETF outperform its benchmark index?
Deutsche Bank’s ETF platform, db X-trackers, provides a rather remarkable ETF tracking Euro Stoxx 50 (which is the most widely used regional blue-chip index in Europe).
What makes it remarkable is ...
18
votes
0answers
460 views
How to show that this weak scheme is a cubature scheme?
Weak schemes, such as Ninomiya-Victoir or Ninomiya-Ninomiya, are typically used for discretization of stochastic volatility models such as the Heston Model.
Can anyone familiar with Cubature on ...
17
votes
7answers
3k views
Why is volatility mean-reverting?
We all know it does mean revert. The question is why. What's making volatility mean-revert? Is it some sort of cyclical behaviour of option traders? The way it's calculated? Why?
17
votes
7answers
6k views
How should I store tick data?
How should I store tick data? For example, if I have an IB trading account, how should I download and store the tick data directly to my computer? Which software should I use?
17
votes
7answers
2k views
Excellent information source on advanced machine learning / data mining based trading?
I did check the related posts, like this one here.
However, given if one already has knowledge in finance, machine learning and statistics, and wants to know something more advanced on machine ...
17
votes
4answers
129 views
What are the effects of turning a backed currency into a fiat currency?
I hear a lot of debate over the removal of the U.S. Dollar's precious metal backing and the subsequent inflation rates, but is there any proven relationship between unbacked currency and extreme ...
17
votes
6answers
894 views
Why do some anomalies persist while others fade away?
In their 1990 book, A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street, Andrew Lo and Craig MacKinlay document a number of persistent predictable patterns in stock prices. One of these "anomalies" is variously known ...
17
votes
2answers
3k views
What types of neural networks are most appropriate for trading?
What types of neural networks are most appropriate for forecasting returns? Can neural networks be the basis for a high-frequency trading strategy?
Types of neural networks include:
Support Vector ...
17
votes
2answers
1k views
How much data is needed to validate a short-horizon trading strategy?
Suppose one has an idea for a short-horizon trading strategy, which we will define as having an average holding period of under 1 week and a required latency between signal calculation and execution ...
17
votes
2answers
980 views
How to quickly estimate a lower bound on correlation for a large number of stocks?
I would like to find stock pairs that exhibit low correlation. If the correlation between A and B is 0.9 and the correlation between A and C is 0.9 is there a minimum possible correlation for B and C? ...
