# All Questions

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### How to implement an Interest rate neutral strategy using options?

Intuitively one would think that investing equal amounts in an ETF such as TLT and an short ETF such as TBF (with some factor for the interest rate payout of the long fund) should result in a interest ...
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### How to filter and normalize market data obtained from distinct sources (FIX 4.4, bloomberg, etc) in an algorithmic trading system?

I'm wondering if some of you known how to resolve this requirement: I have to define the architecture of an algorithmic trading system (but I'm not an architect, so I'm trying to do my best). I have ...
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### Risk minimization by investing in all assets with positive expected return

Suppose I have an amount $T$ to invest and $N$ available assets. The stochastic return per invested unit of asset $i$ is $R_i$. The variance and the expectation of $R_i$ are $\sigma^2_i$ and ...
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### How to calculate implied volatility smile of basket using correlations?

For a basket, the realized volatility can be calculated using: $$\sqrt{\sigma_1^2 + \sigma_2^2 + 2 \sigma_1 \sigma_2 \rho}$$ If I have the volatility surface of two underlyings S1,S2 (strike space). ...
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### portfolio optimization with uncertain returns

What is the usual method of dealing with many uncertain mean returns in portfolio optimization? For example say you have a 3 asset portfolio with assets A, B and C. All the correlations and variances ...
57 views

### What to use as portfolio diversification measure?

Suppose that we have a portfolio of $n$ assets. A perfectly diversified portfolio is one in which each asset has equal weights, i.e. each asset has weight $\frac{1}{n}$. Of course this is usually not ...
24 views

### VIX Futures data: why happen to have settle price > 0 and Volume = O.I. = 0

This question is about something observed hands on data that makes me a little confused. Consider the term structure of futures on VIX of Monday, December 27, 2010. You can find it at the CFE market ...
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### Are there industry standards form market data server and real time linux kernel?

I'm wondering if there is some standard in the industry about the version of the linux kernel of a computer to run a market data engine on it. (market data engine = connect to brokers, subscribe to ...
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### Is there a difference between annuity and actual interest rate payments? [on hold]

I read in some books about annuity repayments and actual interest rate payments. However, I think both concepts are quite similiar or describe even the same? Is there a difference between the ...
22 views

### Stochastic control (HJB) for wealth process involving stopping times

Given a wealth process that evolves as $$d w_t = r w_t dt + \theta_t ( \sigma dW_t + (\mu-r) dt) - c_t dt.$$ where $\theta_t$ is the worth of holding at time $t$ and $c_t$ is the consumption stream. ...
28 views

### Does a call calendar lose its entire value if underlying increases well past the strike?

If I buy a call calendar spread, and the underlying increases, both options are in the money by the expiry of the short call. So both options increase in value, but the short one increases less ...
51 views

### Convert a call spread to a butterfly to mitigate risk

I do not have a source for this (apologies), but sometimes, I hear about option traders initiating a vertical spread(short) and then converting that call spread to a butterfly spread to mitigate risk. ...
36 views

### Applying Girsanov Theorem

I have some parts of the proof, but I am not sure if they are arranged correctly or are sufficient. Is this right? Proposition: Given probability space equipped with natural filtration of standard ...
44 views

### Has automated trading produced profits at IEX?

Is there evidence that automated trading is profitable on the latency-enforced portion of the exchange? On the one hand, if automated trading was profitable when these limits existed naturally, it ...
24 views

### Correction factors for volatilities of smoothed returns

In An Introduction to High Frequency Finance (http://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-High-Frequency-Finance-Ramazan-Gen%C3%A7ay/dp/0122796713), the authors (on page 253) build a tick-frequency volatility ...
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What is the reason that volatility trading is mostly touted as an institutional trade? And something unsuitable for retail traders? Do you need to have substantial capital, risk free rate of ...
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### Will a back month leg in call calendar lose value if underlying goes down

If I buy a call calendar and underlying drops 5%, the front month short call will get further out of money and will lose value, resulting in a gain since I am short the front month option. What about ...
42 views

### Why vega increases further out in time

Why do back months options have a higher vega than front month options? If possible , kindly explain on an intuitive level without a lot of math.
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### Exercise 2.2 from the book “The concept and practice of Mathematical Finance”

I am a newbie. Please help me understand how to resolve the exercise 2.2 from the book "The concept and practice of Mathematical Finance". The solution from the book says that our super-replicating ...
16 views

### Spread over LIBOR on a Equity Swap

Does anyone how banks determine the spread over LIBOR on a Equity Swap? Example: Party A pays the return on SPTR to Party B Party B pays 1M LIBOR + 40 bps to Party A Does anyone know how the 40 ...
78 views

### The future language of quant programming?

Im just about to begin the programming aspect of my education towards being a Quant. I know what languages are currently being used and how popular they are. However, I have several good friends ...
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### How to manage risk on a call calendar when underlying is falling

Let us say I bough a call calendar spread. Now, at expiry of the short option, the underlying has decreased significantly, and I am approaching my max loss(i.e both the options are close to 0). In ...
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### Why theta multipled by days to expiry exceeds the total time premium of the option

Sometimes, I find an option where the total time value of the option may be 5 cents(rest is intrinsic value) and there are about 15 days to expiry and theta is .08 (8 cents). How is this possible. If ...
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### What is the purpose of doing MTM and Cross Currency Swaps?

Both the trades are cross currency, however in MTM one leg is constant and other is variable. But what might the reason for exchanging cash flows into two different currencies? Could someone please ...
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### Using Forward Equity Returns to Value Stream of Equity Return Cash Flows

Can I value the equity leg of an equity swap using the projected forward equity returns? In other words, for a sequence of times $t_{0}<t_{1}<\ldots<t_{n}$, where $t_{0}$ begins a brand new ...
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### Why does the OTM call sometimes have a higher theta than the ATM call?

In this AAPL option chain on Mar20 call options, the OTM calls have a slightly higher theta than the ATM calls. Why is this? Is not time value(and thereby time decay) supposed to be highest for ...
44 views

### Cointegration example

Does anyone know where to find an example of implementing Engle-Granger 2-step cointegration? Python's ideal, but any language will do. I've skimmed and read many articles, but understand little about ...
62 views

### Technical Indicators reference

I have been looking for a good reference where I can find how technical indicators of stock market analysis are calculated. I have a dataset (time series) which I want to extract these indicators to ...
51 views

### Is it too important that my residuals be normal? I am Using an ARMA/GARCH model

I am trying to fit an ARMA/GARCH model to a time series. I found that the best candidate is an ARMA(1,0) + GARCH(1,1) with gaussian white noise It has coefficients with p-values near cero and the ...
44 views

### Question about historical volatility ranking

I have seen this strategy example, which uses garch in a regime switching context: https://systematicinvestor.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/trading-using-garch-volatility-forecast/ The author classifies ...
188 views

### Does higher vega imply higher IV and vice versa

If an option A has higher vega than option B, does that also mean that A has a higher IV than B? I understand that by definition, a higher vega means that A's price is more sensitive to its IV than B. ...
44 views

### If an option went down in value, how much is due to theta decay and how much due to fall in IV

Let us say that there was a stock trading at 100 and the 105 call was trading at 3 $. with 1 month to go Now stock went up to 104 after 15 days, and the call dropped to 2.80$, to the call buyer's ...
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### Amortizing Bond QuantLibXL

I would ask if anybody knows how to do get the NPV of an amortizing bond with QuantLibXL in the most automated way. I found some solutions but are very close to a manual calc, say, pass the vector of ...
205 views

### What is the yield on an infinitely lived ZCB?

I guess the price of a Zero-Coupon Bond with infinite maturity should go to zero, what about its yield? I am asking this because I was dealing with the yield curve and its asymptotic properties when ...
134 views

### correlation for portfolio of stocks

I have a portfolio of stocks and all I want to do is to make sure that I'm not trading one big position, so I would like to monitor some type of metric that gives me a rough idea of what the overall ...
32 views

### Forward Curves and Par Yield Curves

I'm recently reading a research paper on the yield curve by Salomon brothers and in it it states that when the forward curve is above the par yield curve, it is seen as cheaper. If for example, the ...
32 views

### Desperate for help with simple derivative

Can someone help explain how differentiating the following with respect to $x$: $$\frac{1}{2} \alpha \mathbf{x}^T \Sigma \mathbf{x} + (\mathbf{\mu} - R\mathbf{1})\mathbf{x}$$ Yields the following: ...
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### Please recommend a book regarding Monte Carlo simulation in OAS

I couldn't find a book that explains in details how to use Monte Carlo Simulation to generate a number of interest rate scenarios. And then based on the interest rate scenarios, how to calculate the ...
26 views

### Pricing of a call option in one period binomial model

You are given a $5\%$ call option worth $\$2.66$. The strike price$k$is$\$41.00$. $S(0)=40$, $Sd=35$ (i.e the lower price of the stock at $t=1$) find $Su$ (i.e the high price of the stock at ...
22 views

### What is the strike of a short put that mimics a covered call

If I am long a stock $X$ which I purchased at $\$100$and sold a covered call in the front month with strike$\$105$ for $\$2\$ then is it true that the covered call is equivalent to a naked put at ...
34 views

### Stock Returns Distribution in Heston Model

There is a paper by Dragulescu and Yakovenko (DY) in 2002 proposing a pdf for the stock returns in the Heston model. However, in a paper by Daniel, Bree and Joseph, they actually perform statistical ...
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### Are CME security id's unique and constant over time?

For any given day, CME security IDs are unique - a number will always refer to a single product. Are they unique over time as well? That is, might a new security have a security id that used to be ...
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### Will implied volatilities rise by same amount across time and across strikes in lieu of an earnings report or a news event

It is said that implied volatility of an option rises leading up to an earnings report or a pending news event like FDA trial, a possible takeover,elections(?) etc. My question is, implied volatility ...
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### Which free C++ compiler is best for preparing for the quant workplace? [closed]

I want to improve my C++ skills at home in order to prepare for the quant workplace (probably bank derivatives operation or model validation). Is Visual Studio the most predominant in this area? ...
26 views

### Does an Interest Rate Swap has a Vega component?

I am a bit confused on how you calculate vega for Interest Rate Swap. One argument is that IR Swap is a combination of fixed rate bond and floating rate bond. Since a bond has no vega component, IR ...
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### How do I get access to multiple clothing stores data feed or API's? [closed]

I am creating an app that will rely on gaining access to several clothing companies data feeds or api's and am wondering what the best way for me to do this is? Do I pay for someone to do this for me? ...
82 views

### How to approximate the time to mean reversion for implied volatility

Given an option and its implied volatility, and also the mean value of the implied volatility over the last 30 days, if we find that the current IV is significantly (> 1 std dev.) away from the mean, ...
44 views

### How to simulate a CIR process using GPU and Matlab

I am trying to simulate a CIR process using Matlab and my GPU for effeciency. At the moment i run into some implementation problems due to the recursive nature of the discretization. The sheme I ...
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### OIS & LIBOR swap

Why do people use OIS and LIBOR swap spread to compare/value bonds/derivatives? Why not just use US treasury?