# All Questions

661 views

### What is the expected return I should use for the momentum strategy in MV optimization framework?

As all research on the momentum strategies are focused on the indicator, i.e. the entry point, there seems not much discussion on its expected return? Though there are some discussions on the exit ...
641 views

### When should you build your own equity risk model?

Commercial risk models (e.g., Barra, Axioma, Barclays, Northfield) have evolved to a very high level of sophistication. However, all of these models attempt to solve a very broad set of problems. ...
2k views

### How do I compare implied and historic volatility?

what would you suggest are the starting points for comparing, in an easy, visual way, implied and delivered volatility surfaces? I'd like to see what the differences are between the historic surfaces, ...
2k views

### Drawbacks & Caveats of using (N)Esper for ESP/CEP in trading systems?

Esper and its .NET port NEsper are components that enable Complex Event Processing (CEP) and Event Stream Processing (ESP) engines. They are especially suitable for trading applications. They can, ...
984 views

### What are some computational bottlenecks that quants face? [closed]

What are the current computational (non-network) bottlenecks now in a quant's workflow? What computational tasks would be revolutionary with a 10-100x improvement in performance using general purpose ...
902 views

### How to build a regime-switching model which knows its own limits?

In recent months I've come to the conclusion that there are not only certain regimes in the markets (like bear or bull) but phases where all models fail because we are in uncharted territory. The ...
303 views

### Enhancing Monte-Carlo convergence (crude method)

I am currently doing a project involving Monte-Carlo method. I wonder if there is papers dealing with a "learning" refinement method to enhance the MC-convergence, example : Objective : estimate of ...
1k views

### Is there a standard method for quantifying mean-reversion for use in directional trading?

Assuming a directional strategy (no pairs or spread trades) is there a "standard" method for quantifying mean-reversion? Should auto-correlation, variance ratios, hurst exponent, or some other measure ...
285 views

### 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 ...
211 views

### Does entropy pooling apply to distributions with time-varying drift?

I have a returns process that is drawn from a normal distribution with a nonlinear time-varying drift, so I was wondering if the entropy pooling method still applies or if I need an invariant ?
302 views

### How to account for market movement when some exchanges are closed?

Daily data, such as open and close prices, is often available for much longer periods than high-frequency data. However, whenever backtesting any strategy that examines instruments traded in different ...
348 views

### How to “uncluster” a set of financial data?

I am attempting to evaluate and compare the profit factor of different "test runs" of a FOREX trading strategy. My problem is that, despite an average time between orders of 2hr+, some of these runs ...
1k views

### Where to find Greeks for futures to form delta-hedged futures portfolio of S&P 500 index/futures

I can't find S&P 500 index (SPX) futures data with Greeks to create delta-hedged portfolios. Do these data exist? I have access to most of the common data sources. In the meantime, I am trying to ...
495 views

### Meta-view of different time-series similarity measures?

While I spend most of my StackExchange time on MathematicaSE, I'm in the business and follow the questions and answers on this site with great interest. Recently questions like the following (and ...
4k views

### Cross Currency Swap Pricing in nowadays environment

Multicurve setting has now become the new paradigm for vanilla swap valuation. For the record I give here (without getting into too much details) the methodoloy for pricing Euribor3M swaps in this ...
878 views

### Simulating Returns

I'll start this off with a rather broad question: I am trying to simulate returns of a large number of assets within a portfolio of different classes - equity and fixed income in a first step, say 100 ...
225 views

### How do you characterize dividends for equity options?

While many systems like to treat dividends as a continuous yield when pricing equity options, it works quite poorly for short-dated options. In the short run, deterministic dividends are clearly the ...
546 views

### Any recommendations for textbooks for an undergraduate course in mathematical finance? [closed]

I'll teach an introductory course on mathematical finance in the near future. The course is intended to entertain and broaden some well-prepared advanced undergrad mathematics majors, some physics ...
398 views

### Comparing backtesting returns with real trading returns

I have 10 years of backtested simulated performance of some trading strategy (using historical prices), and N months of actual trading performance. What statistical test can I do find out if I'm on ...
394 views

### Exploiting breakdowns in correlation of estimated volatility

In the attached image I have a plot of the rolling correlation of 90-day historic volatility (using the Garman Klass estimator based on Sinclair's Volatility Trading) of JPM v. the S&P. As can be ...
298 views

### Stochastic modelling of derivatives on dividends

I consider pricing and risk analysis of derivatives on dividends of the members of equity indices (such as Dow Jones EuroStoxx). There are options but I focus on futures. What are common stochastic ...
270 views

### A non parametric study of VaR with kernel density

I'm working in order to compare the calculation of the VaR between the methodology of copulas and kernel density, all this by using the software r. The process that I follow is: Obtain a sample ...
319 views

### Is Arithmetic Return Bias Basis of Low Vol Anomaly?

An observation in capital markets is that the connection between return and risk (measured as volatility) is not that straightforward (at least not as modern portfolio theory assumes). One interesting ...
368 views

### Creating an n-factor Certainty Equivalent Discounting Formula

Brealey & Myers provide a certainty-equivalent version of the present value rule, using CAPM, as follows: $$PV_0=\frac{C_1 - \lambda_m *cov(C_1, r_m)}{1 + r_f}$$ $PV_0$ - Present Value of cash ...
275 views

### What weights should be used when adjusting a correlation matrix to be positive definite?

I have a correlation matrix $A$ for an equity market that is not positive definite. Higham (2002) proposes the Alternating Projections Method, minimising the weighted Frobenius norm $||A-X||_W$ where ...
753 views

### Where can I find a database of ALL ETFs, sorted by age?

I have a portfolio allocation strategy I want to backtest, but I need a large "universe" of ETFs for it to choose from at each time period. I was thinking of starting with a criteria such as "all ...
232 views

### Is creating constrained random portfolios a hard problem?

Creating random portfolios with weights $x_i$ can be thought of as sampling from the surface of a simplex given by $$Ex = f$$ and $$Ax \le b$$ Where $E$ and $A$ are constraint matrices for equality ...
419 views

### Law of an integrated CIR Process as sum of Independent Random Variables

It is known (see for example Joshi-Chan "Fast and Accureate Long Stepping Simulation of the Heston SV Model" available at SSRN) that for a CIR process defined as : dY_t= \kappa(\theta -Y_t)dt+ ...
3k 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?
1k views

### When to shut down a trend following strategy?

Suppose I have trend following strategy(on close to close data) that is not getting acceptable returns for some time. When should I start thinking about shutting it down?
3k views

### What is Ito's lemma used for in quantitative finance?

Further to my question asked here: prior post and which left some points unanswered, I have reformulated the question as follows: What is Ito's lemma used for in quantitative finance? and when is it ...
12k views

I am preparing for the CFA level 2 exam, I got confused by the concept Z-spread and OAS. When a call option is added to a bond, since it is not favorable to the bond buyer, they would require more ...
6k views

### Why would an investor trade a variance swap over a volatility swap?

Why would an investor trade a variance swap over a volatility swap? Is it simply related to the leverage involved in a Var (i.e. sigma-squared) or is there something else to it?
4k views

### What is the implied volatility skew?

I often hear people talking about the skew of the volatility surface, model, etc... but it appears to me that a clear standard definition is not unanimously in place among practitioners. So here is ...
851 views

### When hiring a quant, how can I protect my IP?

I am a one-man operation, and would like to hire a quant for around 4 weeks or work. I am worried that the person I hire might copy my data or the indicators that I have him work on. What have ...
539 views

### Optimal execution strategy

Can someone shed some light on optimal ways to execute medium sized orders ~2000 shares in the market? Unfortunately the execution algo I have access to is very dumb. It follows the top-of-book ...
4k views

### Should I use an arithmetic or a geometric calculation for the Sharpe Ratio?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using the arithmetic Sharpe Ratio vs the geometric Sharpe Ratio? Is one more correct? Or is one better in certain circumstances?
535 views

### better estimator of volatility for small samples

One commonly used sample estimator of volatility is the standard deviation of the log returns. It is indeed a very good estimator (unbiased, ...) when the sample is large. But I don't like it for ...
2k views

### Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing (FTAP)

In the spirit of canonical questions please state here versions of the FTAP in the following form (please only one theorem by answer) : Necessary definitions (or a direct link to definitions) ...
2k views

### Categories of systematic trading strategies?

What are the main categories of systematic trading strategies (e.g. momentum, mean reversion), as might be considered by an index or fund-of-fund analyst? Are there any common sub-strategies?
636 views

### Maximization of CARA utility function: unique solution with an unbounded parameter?

An investor at time $t_0$ can invest his wealth $w_0$ in a risky asset $x$ for an amount $a$ and the remain part in the riskless asset $w_0-a$. At the end of the period $t_1$, the investor will ...
2k views

### Why a self-financing replicating portfolio should always exist?

According to my understanding the derivation of the Black-Scholes PDE is based on the assumption that the price of the option should change in time in such a way that it should be possible to ...
1k views

### How to solve for the implied stock lending rate given equity options prices?

When market makers price options on hard-to-borrow equities, they include the cost to borrow the underlying equity that their broker is going to charge them to sell the security short to hedge. I'm ...
2k views

### How do I calculate the skewness of a portfolio of assets?

I need to calculate the skewness of a portfolio consisting of 6 assets. I know that for that I would need the co-skewness matrix between the assets. Does anybody know the formula for co-skewness or ...
2k 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 ...
3k views

Using total return calculations is critical in developing security selection models. The standard way to measure total return is to develop a series of price-adjusted data. Investopedia describes the ...
613 views

### What is the relationship between risk aversion and preference for skewness and kurtosis in portfolio optimization?

Is there any relationship between the risk aversion coefficient in an individual's utility function (commonly used in portfolio optimization) and the preference for higher moments such as skewness and ...
221 views

### Effective Euro-USD (EURUSD) Exchange Rate Prior to Euro's Existence

Motivation: I am running a quantitative analysis that requires long-term, exchange rate data. Problem: Does anyone have methods for dealing with the EURUSD exchange rate prior to the Euro's ...