All Questions

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What type of analysis is appropriate for assessing the performance time-series forecasts?

When using time-series analysis to forecast some type of value, what types of error analysis are worth considering when trying to determine which models are appropriate. One of the big issues that ...
1k views

Hedging stocks with VIX futures

It seems that VIX futures could be a great hedge for a long-only stock portfolio since they rise when stocks fall. But how many VIX futures should I buy to hedge my portfolio, and which futures ...
607 views

Minimizing Correlation

Is there a quantitative method in monitoring trades to reduce the possibility of correlated trades?
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Which algorithm should I look into to kick off my research in algorithmic trading? [closed]

I have recently undertaken a research into automated algorithmic trading algorithms. The aim of the research is to focus on studying algorithmic trading and trying to improve a basic implementation ...
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SPX options vs VIX futures trading

Forward volatility implied by SPX options, and that of VIX futures get out of line. If there existed VIX SQUARED futures they could easily be replicated (and arbitraged) with a strip of SPX options. ...
2k views

Difference between google finance and yahoo finance?

I am wondering about the huge differences of the data provider google finance and yahoo finance. I am interested in the monthly data from adidas listed on xetra. In google: ETR:ADS and in yahoo ...
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A generic limit order book: What are the most important queries it should be able to answer?

Assume a class LimitOrderBook which represents a limit order book in a trading system. To be able to represent the limit order book a data handler reads a feed ...
9k views

How to fit ARMA+GARCH Model In R?

I am currently working on ARMA+GARCH model using R. I am looking out for example which explain step by step explanation for fitting this model in R. I have time series which is stationary and I am ...
1k views

Constructing an approximation of the S&P 500 volatility smile with publicly available data

Besides of the VIX there is another vol datum publicly available for the S&P 500: the SKEW. Do you know a procedure with which one can extrapolate other implied vols of the S&P 500 smile with ...
32k views

How to calculate unsystematic risk?

We know that there are 2 types of risk which are systematic and unsystematic risk. Systematic risk can be estimate through the calculation of β in CAPM formula. But how can we estimate the ...
1k views

Mass Market Data Source

My current project requires large amounts of historical and real-time market data (1m or 5m bars for various products, mostly US futures for as far back as available). This data will be analyzed by ...
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How is historical data for forex collected or computed?

I'm looking at four sources of forex data, as compiled in the question, What data sources are available online? And I think I must be misunderstanding something, perhaps something fundamental, but I'm ...
612 views

Do markets typically fall fast, and rise slowly

I'm wondering if there is some measurement or name to this notion, i.e.: Markets typically fall fast, but rise slowly. It seems like this is the case -- get some bad news out of Europe on the debt ...
7k views

What does it mean to be long gamma?

When you are "long gamma", your position will become "longer" as the price of the underlying asset increases and "shorter" as the underlying price decreases. source: ...
10k views

Correlation between prices or returns?

If you are interested in determining whether there is a correlation between the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet and PPI, would you calculate the correlation between values (prices) or period-to-period ...
2k views

When does delta hedging result in more risk?

There's a question in an interview book saying "when can hedging an options position make you take on more risk?" The answer provided is that "Hedging can increase your risk if you are forced to both ...
5k views

What is a martingale?

What is a martingale and how it compares with a random walk in the context of the Efficient Market Hypothesis?
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What approaches are there for stress testing a portfolio?

Wikipedia lists three of them: Extreme event: hypothesize the portfolio's return given the recurrence of a historical event. Current positions and risk exposures are combined with the historical ...
3k views

Why do we use GARCH(1,1) to predict volatility?

What makes GARCH(1,1) so prevalent in modeling especially in academia? What does this model has that is significantly better than the others?
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What is the mean and the standard deviation for Geometric Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Process?

I am uncertain as to how to calculate the mean and variance of the following Geometric Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. $$d X(t) = a ( L - X_t ) dt + V X_t dW_t$$ Is anyone able to calculate the mean ...
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What causes the call and put volatility surface to differ?

I currently have a local volatility model that uses the standard Black Scholes assumptions. When calculating the volatility surface, what causes the difference between the call volatility surface, ...
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What is a “coherent” risk measure?

What is a coherent risk measure, and why do we care? Can you give a simple example of a coherent risk measure as opposed to a non-coherent one, and the problems that a coherent measure addresses in ...
740 views

Is this a common variation of sharpe ratio?

As an aside on his answer on another question Freddy said: Sharpe ratio is an often cited metric, though I do not like it too much because you are penalized for out-sized positive returns while ...
992 views

What commercial financial libraries are available to outsource implementation risk?

During our daily jobs as quants, we tend to be willing to develop all the quantitative libraries ourselves. While I know that we need to develop specific algorithms which are the foundations of our ...
2k views

How does volatility affect the price of binary options?

In theory, how should volatility affect the price of a binary option? A typical out the money option has more extrinsic value and therefore volatility plays a much more noticeable factor. Now let's ...
1k views

Limit order book size

I am trying to write a highly optimised limit order book and I wondered what sort of size I can expect for: Range of limit prices Number of orders at each limit price I am developing custom ...
343 views

How to reduce variance in a Cox-Ingersoll-Ross Monte Carlo simulation?

I am working out a numerical integral for option pricing in which I'm simulating an interest rate process using a Cox-Ingersoll-Ross process. Each step in my Monte Carlo generated path is a ...
3k views

Are there comprehensive analyses of theta decay in weekly options?

Are there comprehensive analyses of how much theta a weekly options loses in a day, per day? I know what the shape of theta decay looks like, in theory, where the decay towards zero happens more ...
2k views

Cluster analysis vs PCA for risk models?

I built risk models using cluster analysis in a previous life. Years ago I learned about principal component analysis and I've often wondered whether that would have been more appropriate. What are ...
886 views

Threshold calculation for buying a mean-reverting asset

I am trying to figure-out an optimal policy for buying a unit when its price follows a mean-reverting price process (Ornstein–Uhlenbeck), when I have a finite time deadline for buying the unit. I ...
1k views

What are the steps to perform properly a risk factor analysis on a portfolio?

I have been asked to perform a factor analysis on a given portfolio, assume it's a Swiss portfolio in CHF. First step, I chose which factors I would like to see in my analysis. The first factors I ...
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I have a time series of data that is 300 days long. I compute PCA factor loadings on a moving window of 30 days. There are 7 stocks in the universe. Thus factors F1 through F7 are calculated on each ...
2k views

How to extrapolate implied volatility for out of the money options?

Estimation of model-free implied volatility is highly dependent upon the extrapolation procedure for non-traded options at extreme out-of-the-money points. Jiang and Tian (2007) propose that the ...
1k views

Why is the SABR volatility model not good at pricing a constant maturity swap (CMS)?

I have heard that the SABR volatility model was not good at pricing a constant maturity swap (CMS). How is that?