# All Questions

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20k views

### What are the advantages/disadvantages of these approaches to deal with volatility surface?

I would like to know if someone could provide a summarized view of the advantages and disadvantages of the approaches on the volatility surface issues, such as: Local vol Stochastic Vol (Heston/SVI) ...
5k views

### What kind of basic framework or application do you use to run your trading algorithms?

I heard about MetaTrader from http://www.metaquotes.net. Is there any other framework or program available? Do you use different software for backtracking and running your trading algorithms? Thank ...
19k views

### How do you explain the volatility smile in the Black-Scholes framework?

Does anyone have an explanation for the currently naturally forming volatility smile (and the variations) in the market?
15k views

### Probability of touching

For a vanilla option, I know that the probability of the option expiring in the money is simply the delta of the option... but how would I calculate the probability, without doing monte carlo, of the ...
25k views

### Transformation from the Black-Scholes differential equation to the diffusion equation - and back

I know the derivation of the Black-Scholes differential equation and I understand (most of) the solution of the diffusion equation. What I am missing is the transformation from the Black-Scholes ...
4k views

### Most successful investors using academic-based framework?

What are the most famous/best performing absolute-return funds employing approaches based on mainstream finance theory (i.e., theory presented in Journal of Finance, AER, Econometrica, using typically ...
12k 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 ...
27k views

### Applications of Fourier theory in trading

What are fashionable applications of Fourier analysis in trading? I have heard vague ideas of applications in High Frequency Trading but can somebody provide an example, maybe a reference? Just for ...
3k views

### Model Validation Criteria

Let's say I have a brand new fancy model on some asset class (calibration porcedure included over a set of vanilla options) in which I truly believe I made a step forward comparing to existing ...
10k views

### Local Volatility vs. Stochastic Volatility

Are there any empirical observations or practices when to prefer Local Volatility Model for pricing over Stochastic Model or vice versa?
2k views

### Who has introduced the term 'vega' and why?

The sensitivity of the option value $V$ to volatility $\sigma$ (a.k.a. vega) is different from the other greeks. It is a derivative with respect to a parameter and not a variable. To quote from Paul ...
14k views

### How are cryptography and speech recognition technology applied to forecasting financial markets?

One of the answers to my previous question regarding the strategy of Renaissance Technologies, there was a reference to The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly ...
21k 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?
9k views

### Should Sharpe ratio be computed using log returns or relative returns?

I am trying to reconcile some research with some published values of 'Sharpe ratio', and would like to know the 'standard' method for computing the same: Based on daily returns? Monthly? Weekly? ...
54k views

### What is the Swap Curve?

What is the so-called Swap Curve, and how does it relate to the Zero Curve (or spot yield curve)? Does it only refer to a curve of swap rates versus maturities found in the market? Or is it a swap ...
3k views

### How are risk management practices applied to ML/AI-based automated trading systems

A potential issue with automated trading systems, that are based on Machine Learning (ML) and/or Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the difficulty of assessing the risk of a trade. An ML/AI algorithm ...
4k views

### QuantLib in industry

How much is QuantLib used in industry and how much street cred does it have?
4k 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 ...
60k views

### Strategy of Renaissance Technologies Medallion fund: Holy Grail or next Madoff?

Renaissance Technologies Medallion fund is one of the most successful hedge funds - ever! Yet it is very secretive. Do you have information on the strategy used that is not yet mentioned in the ...
58k views

3k views

### How do I adjust a correlation matrix whose elements are generated from different market regimes?

Say I want to calculate a correlation matrix for 50 stocks using 3-year historical daily data. And there are some stocks that were recently listed for one year. This is not technically challenging ...
8k views

### Proof that you cannot beat a random walk

There is much speculation to what degree financial series are random (and what kind of randomness prevails). I want to turn the question on its head and ask: Is there a mathematical proof that ...
13k views

### Is the stock price process a martingale or a Markov process?

Some people claim that the data-generating process for stocks is a "martingale" and that is has the "Markov property". Are they unrelated? Is it that the Markov property implies some sort of ...
7k views

I am looking for all kinds of research concerning option trading strategies. With that I mean papers that publish results on different option trading strategies properly backtested with real-world ...
34k views

### Worked examples of applying Ito's lemma

In most textbooks Ito's lemma is derived (on different levels of technicality depending on the intended audience) and then only the classic examples of Geometric Brownian motion and the Black-Scholes ...
44k views

### Difference between S&P 500 index and S&P 500 Total Return index?

There's the standard S&P 500 index (SPX) and the rarer used S&P 500 Total Return index (SPTR). If you compare graphs, you'll find that the latter grows faster. Supposedly, SPTR assumes ...
3k 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? ...
2k views

### What are the recent quantitative finance papers we should all read?

Which papers released in the last five years should all quants read to keep up to date on recent developments? See this question for the best must-read papers of all time. The bar for inclusion for an ...
4k views

### Tools in R for estimating time-varying copulas?

Are there libraries in R for estimating time-varying joint distributions via copulas? Hedibert Lopes has an excellent paper on the topic here. I know there is an existing packaged called copula but ...
32k views

### Is the Interactive Brokers API suitable for hft?

By HFT here I mean anything with holding period less than 5 to 10 minutes. Any empirical/anecdotal evidence of using it successfully on even higher frequencies?
17k 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?
5k views

### What are some good technical and non-technical books for a math lover to get in to quantitative analysis? [closed]

To get the ball rolling... I will answer this question this evening For people aware & unaware I think it would be a great way to introduce the group, resources for fundamental knowledge & ...
5k views

### What is the necessary level of Econometrics-Know-How for a quant

It seems quants increasingly use econometric models at work. As someone who has sold his soul to probability theory and stochastical analysis I would like to catch up. What are the econometric tools ...
7k views

### Can the concept of entropy be applied to financial time series?

I am not familiar with the concept of entropy for time series. I am looking for good reference papers and examples of use.
12k views

### Why is the VIX futures market usually in a state of contango?

I'm a VIX newbie and I'm trying to understand why the VIX futures market is usually in a state of contango. All I can figure is that the sellers of VIX futures contracts demand high "prices" (because ...
8k views

### Implementing data-structures in a Limit order book

I'm working on implementing a 'LOB' and I'm being very careful about choosing my data-structures so as to maximize performance. Using F# as an example, I need to consider a List versus Array for ...