IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/quantf/v10y2010i7p761-782.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Statistical arbitrage in the US equities market

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Avellaneda
  • Jeong-Hyun Lee

Abstract

We study model-driven statistical arbitrage in US equities. Trading signals are generated in two ways: using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) or regressing stock returns on sector Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). In both cases, the idiosyncratic returns are modelled as mean-reverting processes, which leads naturally to 'contrarian' strategies. We construct, back-test and compare market-neutral PCA- and ETF-based strategies applied to the broad universe of US equities. After accounting for transaction costs, PCA-based strategies have an average annual Sharpe ratio of 1.44 over the period 1997 to 2007, with stronger performances prior to 2003. During 2003-2007, the average Sharpe ratio of PCA-based strategies was only 0.9. ETF-based strategies had a Sharpe ratio of 1.1 from 1997 to 2007, experiencing a similar degradation since 2002. We also propose signals that account for trading volume, observing significant improvement in performance in the case of ETF-based signals. ETF-strategies with volume information achieved a Sharpe ratio of 1.51 from 2003 to 2007. The paper also relates the performance of mean-reversion statistical arbitrage strategies with the stock market cycle. In particular, we study in detail the performance of the strategies during the liquidity crisis of the summer of 2007, following Khandani and Lo [Social Science Research Network (SSRN) working paper, 2007].

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Avellaneda & Jeong-Hyun Lee, 2010. "Statistical arbitrage in the US equities market," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(7), pages 761-782.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:quantf:v:10:y:2010:i:7:p:761-782
    DOI: 10.1080/14697680903124632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14697680903124632
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14697680903124632?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rama Cont & Jose da Fonseca, 2002. "Dynamics of implied volatility surfaces," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 45-60.
    2. Lo, Andrew W & MacKinlay, A Craig, 1990. "When Are Contrarian Profits Due to Stock Market Overreaction?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 175-205.
    3. Bruce N. Lehmann, 1990. "Fads, Martingales, and Market Efficiency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 1-28.
    4. Poterba, James M. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1988. "Mean reversion in stock prices : Evidence and Implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 27-59, October.
    5. Li, Baibing & Martin, Elaine B. & Morris, A. Julian, 2002. "On principal component analysis in L1," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 471-474, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nam, Kiseok & Pyun, Chong Soo & Kim, Sei-Wan, 2003. "Is asymmetric mean-reverting pattern in stock returns systematic? Evidence from Pacific-basin markets in the short-horizon," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 481-502, December.
    2. Lo, Andrew W & Wang, Jiang, 1995. "Implementing Option Pricing Models When Asset Returns Are Predictable," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 87-129, March.
    3. Balvers, Ronald J. & Wu, Yangru, 2006. "Momentum and mean reversion across national equity markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 24-48, January.
    4. Wen-Jun Xue & Li-Wen Zhang, 2016. "Stock Return Autocorrelations and Predictability in the Chinese Stock Market: Evidence from Threshold Quantile Autoregressive Models," Working Papers 1605, Florida International University, Department of Economics.
    5. Young-Hye Cho & Robert F. Engle, 1999. "Time-Varying Betas and Asymmetric Effect of News: Empirical Analysis of Blue Chip Stocks," NBER Working Papers 7330, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Kanas, Angelos & Kouretas, Georgios P., 2005. "A cointegration approach to the lead-lag effect among size-sorted equity portfolios," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 181-201.
    7. Xue, Wen-Jun & Zhang, Li-Wen, 2017. "Stock return autocorrelations and predictability in the Chinese stock market—Evidence from threshold quantile autoregressive models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 391-401.
    8. Simon Gervais & Ron Kaniel & Dan H. Mingelgrin, 2001. "The High‐Volume Return Premium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 877-919, June.
    9. McInish, Thomas H. & Ding, David K. & Pyun, Chong Soo & Wongchoti, Udomsak, 2008. "Short-horizon contrarian and momentum strategies in Asian markets: An integrated analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 312-329.
    10. Trabelsi, Mohamed Ali, 2008. "Sur-réaction sur le marché tunisien des actions : une investigation empirique [Overreaction on the Tunisian stock market: an empirical test]," MPRA Paper 26751, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Trabelsi, Mohamed Ali, 2008. "Sur-réaction sur le marché tunisien des actions : une investigation empirique [Overreaction on the Tunisian stock market: an empirical test]," MPRA Paper 76925, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Achim Himmelmann & Dirk Schiereck & Marc Simpson & Moritz Zschoche, 2012. "Long-term reactions to large stock price declines and increases in the European stock market: a note on market efficiency," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 36(2), pages 400-423, April.
    13. Gencay, Ramazan, 1998. "The predictability of security returns with simple technical trading rules," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 347-359, October.
    14. Steve Beveridege & Cyril Oickle, 1997. "Long memory in the Canadian stock market," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(6), pages 667-672.
    15. Nam, Kiseok & Pyun, Chong Soo & Arize, Augustine C., 2002. "Asymmetric mean-reversion and contrarian profits: ANST-GARCH approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 563-588, December.
    16. Chou, Pin-Huang & Wei, K.C. John & Chung, Huimin, 2007. "Sources of contrarian profits in the Japanese stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 261-286, June.
    17. Nam, Kiseok & Pyun, Chong Soo & Avard, Stephen L., 2001. "Asymmetric reverting behavior of short-horizon stock returns: An evidence of stock market overreaction," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 807-824, April.
    18. Chae, Joon & Kim, Ryumi, 2020. "Contrarian profits of the firm-specific component on stock returns," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. AltInkIlIç, Oya & Hansen, Robert S., 2009. "On the information role of stock recommendation revisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 17-36, October.
    20. Kang, Joseph & Liu, Ming-Hua & Ni, Sophie Xiaoyan, 2002. "Contrarian and momentum strategies in the China stock market: 1993-2000," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 243-265, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:quantf:v:10:y:2010:i:7:p:761-782. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RQUF20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.