All Questions

2k views

What is the ideal ratio of in-sample length to out-of-sample length?

Suppose you are running a portfolio of quantitative strategies and that you develop a new potential strategy to be added to the mix. Assume for simplicity that the new strategy is independent of the ...
3k views

How can I learn about the quantitative aspects of market making in illiquid single stock options?

I would like to learn more about the possible ways of doing quantitative research regarding option market making. In particular, while the mainstream index option market may be very liquid, the ...
4k views

How to build a mean reverting basket?

I have been playing with mean reverting pairs, but seems that most of the low hanging fruit (ie pairs) have been squeezed already. I would like to start with mean reverting baskets (>2 securities) in ...
422 views

Min VaR and Min TE as second order cone program

The quadratic optimization (min variance) $$w^{T} \Sigma w \rightarrow \text{min},$$ where $w$ is the vector of portfolio weights and $\Sigma$ is the covariance matrix of asset returns, is a well ...
1k views

Automated 10-K XBRL data grab using the SEC file structure

I would like to write a program that takes as input a list of CIK/year/quarter entries. The program should iterate through the list and, for each entry, grab XBRL financial data from the SEC website ...
2k views

Is there any theoretical basis for pattern-recognition strategies?

Mean-reversion and trend-following strategies have some kind of a theory behind them that explains why they might work, if implemented well. Pattern-recognition, on the other hand, seems like nothing ...
791 views

Duality between constant rebalanced portfolio (CRP) and corresponding derivative

One of the greatest achievements of modern option pricing theory is finding corresponding dynamical trading strategies in linear instruments with which you can replicate and by that price derivative ...
1k views

Measuring liquidity

While liquidity is one of the key figure of financial markets, It seems to be very difficult to measure. Volume is sometime used as a proxy but can sometimes be completly irrelevant. Could you point ...
4k 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?
2k views

Modelling with negative interest rates

For a project, I am interested to model the impact of recently negative interest bonds on the portfolio. The literature on modelling negative interest rates is limited, and the only theory I could ...
675 views

What techniques are used for testing order book implementations?

I am finishing the implementation of a limit order book for modeling NASDAQ. The order book works off of the ITCH feed. My question is what techniques are typically used for testing order books. I am ...
6k 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?
2k views

Algorithm to fit AR(1)/GARCH(1,1) model of log-returns

I am fitting numerically an AR(1)/GARCH(1,1) process to index and stock log-returns, $r_t=\log(P_t/P_{t-1})$, where $P_t$ is the price at time $t$, and thus far am not clear on where the observed log ...
2k views

Book on market microstructure

Can I get some recommendations for a book on market microstructure? I'm not looking for some author's questionable methods for trading, I'm just looking for a book that provides me with facts about ...
4k views

Analyzing tick data

What are some of the commonly used techniques to analyze tick data? I am looking at tick data to see how the quotes/ mid-price evolves due to certain events in the market. Since tick data is ...
47k 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 ...
452 views

Choice of prior as a shrinkage target in portfolio construction?

There's various research showing how priors such as the minimum variance portfolio turn out to be a surprisingly effective shrinkage target in portfolio construction. The sell point of these priors ...
6k views

Where can I find some examples of high frequency or stat arb trading algorithms beyond basic textbook pairs trading?

In particular, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_trading#Algorithms has several name algorithms. I understand most HFT algorithms are proprietary but I am looking for examples of HFT ...
27k views

What is the difference between volatility and variance?

How do volatility and variance differ in finance and what do both imply about the movement of an underlying?
1k views

Is there a standard method for getting a continuous time series from futures data?

I would like to be able to analyse futures prices as one continuous time series, so what kinds of methods exist for combining the prices for the various delivery dates into a single time series? I am ...
3k views

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 ...
954 views

How to account for transaction costs in a simulated market environment?

I am simulating a market for my trading system. I have no ask-bid prices in my dataset and use adjusted close for both buy and sell price. To account for this I plan to use a relative transaction ...
1k views

Resources for finding scholarly research on topics in quantitative finance?

A friend and I have taken up an interest in quantitative finance, and we're pretty much starting from scratch—neither of us have backgrounds in finance, but rather electrical engineering and ...
1k views

Implementing a Fast Fourier Transform for Option Pricing

So, I'm in need of some tips regarding a small project I'm doing. My goal is an implementation of a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm (FFT) which can be applied to the pricing of options. First ...
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 ...
1k views

What approaches are there to order handling in automated trading?

I am currently developing a commercial automated trading program in which users can write their own proprietary code and develop strategies, like in NinjaTrader, MetaTrader etc. Right now I am working ...
1k views

Recommendation for a library to calculate the local volatility surface?

I'd like a library to calculate the options local volatility surface, i.e. the options implied volatility surface for a collection of strikes and their bid/ask prices. Here are the libraries I've ...
726 views

Indicators and research for stress-based investment strategies

In reference to this paper: Can risk aversion indicators anticipate ﬁnancial crises? and the investable UBS Risk Adjusted Dynamic Alpha Strategy: ...
1k views

Regime-Switching Model for detecting market shifts

I'm always wondering whether anyone has utilized regime-switching models successfully in forecasting or trading. Academia has long discussed this topic in-depth, such as using Regime Switching ...
4k views

How to tune Kalman filter's parameter?

I plan to use Kalman filter to estimate saving account amount. However, I'm a bit lost at how to tune the filter's parameters. Taking as the example from the Wikipedia page, basically there are ...
500 views

Malliavin Calculus

From a quant point of view, how would you explain Malliavin calculus in few words ? I have the level to take these courses, but won't be able to do it next year, so I want to know what I am missing. ...
2k views

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 ...
1k views

Typical coefficients uses in square-root model for market impact

The square-root model is widely used to model equity market impact. It assumes that volatility, traded volume, total volume, and a spread cost are the drivers of slippage. Jim Gatheral has an ...
696 views

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Minimizing Correlation

Is there a quantitative method in monitoring trades to reduce the possibility of correlated trades?
2k views

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 ...
3k views

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. ...
398 views

What are the canonical books for statistics applied to finance?

I have some decent knowledge of probability, stochastic processes and option theory, however I do not have a proper background in statistics. Now I am working quite a lot with data, and trying ...
3k views

Fastest news feed APIs targeting high frequency trading?

The Dow Jones elementized news feed API seems to stand out but are there any other machine readable news feeds out there that provide very low latencies that high frequency operations may peruse? I am ...
1k views

Comparing MVO with Resampled Efficient Frontier

My question: How can I compare the Resampled Frontier (REF) to the standard MVO frontier when I have been provided with $\mu$, $\Omega$, and don't have access to true future data to test real out of ...
1k views

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 ...
14k 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 ...