# All Questions

651 views

### Two prices pass the cointegration test but there is a trend. How to check stationarity?

Below is a spread built with two ETFs that pass the cointegration test i.e. Adjusted Dickey Fuller, adfTest(type="nc") in R's fUnitRoots with a p-value < 0.01. The red line is the trendline. What ...
360 views

### Lower bound of ITM Calls when computing Implied Volatility

Assuming the Black Scholes model and pricing formula of a European call option. Then, if the call is ITM, i.e. if $ln(\frac{S}{K})>0$, the $d_1$-term will go towards infinity as $\sigma$ goes to ...
445 views

### What is the relative performance of hard-to-borrow securities?

Is there any research on the equity return performance of hard-to-borrow securities? Many shops will simply screen for hard-to-borrow and eliminate these names from their short book. Anecdotally, ...
357 views

### Any package to run VAR-GARCH or VECM-GARCH models in R?

I need to estimate a multivariate VECM-GARCH (or simply VAR-GARCH) in R. Browsing on the internet, I did not find anything yet. Do you know if such kind of packages exists? Please, note that a BEKK ...
233 views

### What are $d_1$ and $d_2$ for Laplace?

What are the formulae for d1 & d2 using a Laplace distribution?
224 views

### What is the difference between these two optimization procedures?

In this portfolio optimization utility (and others), mean return, standard deviation and correlation among assets are required inputs. http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~stambaugh/portopt.html At ...
110 views

### Extended Hull White Interest Rate Model for Zero Coupon Bond

Please taking the following SDE dr = u (r; t) dt + w (r; t) dX: u (r; t) = a(t)-br; w (r; t) = c; b&c are constants and a(t) arbitrary function of time. If Zero Coupon Bond Z (r; T; T) = 1 ...
145 views

### Can determinant of liquidity risk be used as a dimension or measure of liquidity risk

Can I take liquidity risk determinant as a dimension of it in order to examine the impact of liquidity risk on performance of banks? For example in a literature, Tangibility i.e., ratio of fixed ...
86 views

### Good Environment, Social, and Governance Indicators to correlate with financial performance of PE

I am trying to see if there is a correlation between the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and the financial performance of Private Equity (PE) funds. Are there any suggestions ...
5k views

### How to normalize stock data

Please advise how can i normalize stock prices. Recently, I've been using such formulas: Log prices = Ln(Close(t)) Close(t)-Mean (Close(t)-Mean)/(StdDev) Ln(Close(t))-Mean Is there any other ...
289 views

### Reading recommendation on using statistical analysis in online fraud prevention [closed]

Can you please recommend good reads on statistical analysis related to online fraud detection and prevention of account abuse?
651 views

### Calculating arbitrage- S&P 500 stocks vs S&P 500 Index future?

How exactly would I go about investigating whether the S&P 500 stocks were currently over-valued compared with the price of the S&P 500 Index futures contract? Is it just a case of taking each ...
17k views

### How useful is the genetic algorithm for financial market forecasting?

There is a large body of literature on the "success" of the application of evolutionary algorithms in general, and the genetic algorithm in particular, to the financial markets. However, I feel ...
16k views

### Switching from C++ to R - limitations/applications

I've only recently begun exploring and learning R (especially since Dirk recommended RStudio and a lot of people in here speak highly of R). I'm rather C(++) oriented, so it got me thinking - what are ...
3k views

Everyone seems to agree that the option prices predicted by the Black-Merton-Scholes model are inconsistent with what is observed in reality. Still, many people rely on the model by using "the wrong ...
11k views

### Except Zipline, are there any other Pythonic algorithmic trading library I can choose?

Except Zipline, are there any other Pythonic algorithmic trading library I can choose? Especially, for backtesting?
3k views

### References for developing an automated trading system?

I am looking for references on the architecture of automated trading systems and the trading algorithms behind them. I am more interested in system development than analysis. A couple of books I ...
6k views

### What types of neural networks are most appropriate for trading?

What types of neural networks are most appropriate for forecasting returns? Can neural networks be the basis for a high-frequency trading strategy? Types of neural networks include: Support Vector ...
5k views

### What are the best sources for equity quantitative research?

What are the best sources of quantitative finance research in equities? I will list a couple and note an asterisk if the research is available by request (i.e. non-clients) or online: BAC-Merrill ...
4k views

### What C++ math libraries are typically used by quants?

Before you mark question as off-topic, please read it - it is, actually, quant-related. Basically, I'm working on an app that spits out a lot of C++ math. When it comes to simple things like ...
3k views

### Lévy alpha-stable distribution and modelling of stock prices.

Since Mandelbrot, Fama and others have performed seminal work on the topic, it has been suspected that stock price fluctuations can be more appropriately modeled using Lévy alpha-stable distrbutions ...
11k views

### Python library for Portfolio Optimization

Does anyone know of a python library/source that is able to calculate the traditional mean-variance portfolio? To press my luck, any resources where the library/source also contains functions such as ...
7k views

### Training set of tick-by-tick data?

I'm looking to find a free source of tick by tick data (<1sec) for training purposes. It doesn't need to be longer than a day, and I don't care what instrument, or exchange, or time it is. I just ...
10k views

### How to identify technical analysis chart patterns algorithmically?

I'm working on a small application that will provide some charts and graphs to be used for technical analysis. I'm new to TA but I'm wondering if there is a way to algorithmically identify the ...
4k 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 ...
15k views

### Is there any thing out there as a substitute for KDB?

thanks a lot for your discussions on the original post. following your suggestions, let me re-phrase a bit : kdb is known for its efficiency, and such efficiency comes at a terrible price. However, ...
4k views

### How good is managed code for algo trading?

I am currently working in a firm that does algo trading. We do all of our stuff in Java. And we do make money out of it. We have debates all the time whether we would have made more money with native ...
1k views

### Portfolio optimization with monte carlo sampling from predictive distribution

Let's say we have a predictive distribution of expected returns for N assets. The distribution is not normal. We can interpret the dispersion in the distribution as reflection of our uncertainty (or ...
7k 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 ...
19k 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 ...
7k views

### Why do high frequency traders use rapidly cancelled limit orders?

In reading about the various practices and strategies of high frequency traders, one of the most mysterious to me is "fleeting orders," or orders that are cancelled almost immediately after they are ...
968 views

### What are the textbooks used to teach Quantitative Trading at universities?

For example, Stanford has a class on quantitative trading. But i am not able to determine what are the textbook(s) used in this course. The same also applies for similar courses at Stony Brook, ...
1k views

### Please give a step-by-step explanation on how to build a factor model

Factor models such as Fama-French or the other ones that are partially summarized here work on the cross-section of asset returns. How are the factors built, how are sensitivities/coefficients ...
2k 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? ...
5k views

### What are the best Journals & Conferences in Quantitative Finance?

What are some of the most prominent journals, conferences and publishing venues in Quantitative Finance research? Where can I find information more information about them? (e.g. impact factor and ...
5k 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 ...
3k views

### What methods do you use to improve expected return estimates when constructing a portfolio in a mean-variance framework?

One of the main problems when trying to apply mean-variance portfolio optimization in practice is its high input sensitivity. As can be seen in (Chopra, 1993) using historical values to estimate ...
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?
3k views

### How to forecast volatility using high-frequency data?

There is a large literature covering volatility forecasts with high-frequency tick data. Much of this has surrounded the concept of "realized volatility", such as: "Realized Volatility and ...
3k views

### Option pricing before Black-Scholes

According to the Wikipedia article, Contracts similar to options are believed to have been used since ancient times. In London, puts and "refusals" (calls) first became well-known trading ...
1k views

### Why is there no “meta-model”?

If I design a trading model, I might want to know the model's half life. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible to predict alpha longevity without a meta-model of the market. Intuitively, such a ...
2k views

### How can I quantitatively test the validity of momentum indicators?

I am learning about quantitative finance, and I am struck by how different it is from the techniques that make it into magazines and TV, particularly technical analysis. Specifically, if they say an ...
644 views

### Measuring Behavioral Finance Effects in Fund/Portfolio Manager Analysis

I want to know if there are some standardized measures to evaluate how irrationally human a portfolio manager is. Are there any performance measures or scorings for behavioral finance effects? How ...
1k views

### How to estimate the probability of drawdown / ruin?

A fairly naive approach to estimate the probability of drawdown / ruin is to calculate the probabilities of all the permutations of your sample returns, keeping track of those that hit your drawdown / ...
5k views

### portfolio optimisation with VaR (or CVaR) constraints

I would like to optimize a portfolio allocation (maximizing the exposure or the expected return), but with VaR or CVaR contraints. (some parts of my portfolio cannot exceed a certain VaR) How can I ...
3k views

### Main backtesting & trading solutions: QuantFactory, Deltix, etc.

What are the most used/mature/promising commercial solutions today which handle backtesting/ automated trading needs? I'm talking about vertical product suites like QuantFactory or Deltix which ...
876 views

### Diversification, Rebalancing and Different Means

I have found many financial authors making generalizations about GM and AM but they are wrong in certain circumstances. Could someone explain their reasoning? My fact why they are wrong is based ...
3k 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.
I tried it in several symbols and timeframes with the same result: $$\frac {mean(HIGH-LOW)}{mean(|CLOSE-OPEN|)}$$ ...