IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1608.08268.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Market-Neutrality of Optimal Pairs-Trading Strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Bahman Angoshtari

Abstract

We consider the problem of optimal investment in a market with two cointegrated stocks and an agent with CRRA utility. We extend the findings of Liu and Timmermann [The Review of Financial Studies, 26(4):1048-1086, 2013] by paying special attention to when/if the associated stochastic control problem is well-posed and providing a verification result. Our new findings lead to a sharp well-posedness condition which is, surprisingly, also the necessary and sufficient condition for the optimal investment to be market-neutral (i.e. having offsetting long/short positions in the stocks). Hence, we provide a theoretical justification for market-neutral pairs-trading which, despite having a strong practical relevance, has been lacking a theoretical ground.

Suggested Citation

  • Bahman Angoshtari, 2016. "On the Market-Neutrality of Optimal Pairs-Trading Strategies," Papers 1608.08268, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1608.08268
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.08268
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jun Liu, 2004. "Losing Money on Arbitrage: Optimal Dynamic Portfolio Choice in Markets with Arbitrage Opportunities," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 611-641.
    2. Tim Leung & Xin Li, 2016. "Optimal Mean Reversion Trading:Mathematical Analysis and Practical Applications," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 9839, January.
    3. Taylor, Mark P & Tonks, Ian, 1989. "The Internationalisation of Stock Markets and the Abolition of U.K. Exchange Control," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(2), pages 332-336, May.
    4. Cox, John C. & Huang, Chi-fu, 1991. "A variational problem arising in financial economics," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 465-487.
    5. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    6. Duan, Jin-Chuan & Pliska, Stanley R., 2004. "Option valuation with co-integrated asset prices," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 727-754, January.
    7. Chiu, Mei Choi & Wong, Hoi Ying, 2011. "Mean-variance portfolio selection of cointegrated assets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1369-1385, August.
    8. Kim, Tong Suk & Omberg, Edward, 1996. "Dynamic Nonmyopic Portfolio Behavior," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 141-161.
    9. Juselius, Katarina, 2006. "The Cointegrated VAR Model: Methodology and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199285679.
    10. Evan Gatev & William N. Goetzmann & K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 2006. "Pairs Trading: Performance of a Relative-Value Arbitrage Rule," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 797-827.
    11. Tourin, Agnès & Yan, Raphael, 2013. "Dynamic pairs trading using the stochastic control approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1972-1981.
    12. Baillie, Richard T & Bollerslev, Tim, 1989. " Common Stochastic Trends in a System of Exchange Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 44(1), pages 167-181, March.
    13. Dybvig, Philip H & Rogers, L C G & Back, Kerry, 1999. "Portfolio Turnpikes," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(1), pages 165-195.
    14. Xiong, Wei, 2001. "Convergence trading with wealth effects: an amplification mechanism in financial markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 247-292, November.
    15. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501.
    16. Hall, Anthony D & Anderson, Heather M & Granger, Clive W J, 1992. "A Cointegration Analysis of Treasury Bill Yields," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(1), pages 116-126, February.
    17. Cerchi, Marlene & Havenner, Arthur, 1988. "Cointegration and stock prices : The random walk on wall street revisited," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 333-346.
    18. Ralf Korn & Holger Kraft, 2004. "On The Stability Of Continuous‐Time Portfolio Problems With Stochastic Opportunity Set," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 403-414, July.
    19. Cox, John C. & Huang, Chi-fu, 1989. "Optimal consumption and portfolio policies when asset prices follow a diffusion process," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 33-83, October.
    20. MacDonald, Ronald & Taylor, Mark P, 1988. "Metals Prices, Efficiency and Cointegration: Some Evidence from the London Metal Exchange," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 235-239, June.
    21. Marco Avellaneda & Jeong-Hyun Lee, 2010. "Statistical arbitrage in the US equities market," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(7), pages 761-782.
    22. M. Kessler & A. Rahbek, 2004. "Identification and Inference for Multivariate Cointegrated and Ergodic Gaussian Diffusions," Statistical Inference for Stochastic Processes, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 137-151, May.
    23. Mathieu Kessler & Anders Rahbek, 2001. "Asymptotic Likelihood Based Inference for Co‐integrated Homogenous Gaussian Diffusions," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics;Finnish Statistical Society;Norwegian Statistical Association;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 28(3), pages 455-470, September.
    24. Brenner, Robin J. & Kroner, Kenneth F., 1995. "Arbitrage, Cointegration, and Testing the Unbiasedness Hypothesis in Financial Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 23-42, March.
    25. Jun Liu & Allan Timmermann, 2013. "Optimal Convergence Trade Strategies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(4), pages 1048-1086.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sühan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2021. "Optimal convergence trading with unobservable pricing errors," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 133-161, April.
    2. Tim Leung & Raphael Yan, 2018. "Optimal dynamic pairs trading of futures under a two-factor mean-reverting model," International Journal of Financial Engineering (IJFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Xiaodong Chen & Tim Leung & Yang Zhou, 2022. "Constrained dynamic futures portfolios with stochastic basis," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-33, March.
    4. Abdelali Gabih & Hakam Kondakji & Ralf Wunderlich, 2022. "Well Posedness of Utility Maximization Problems Under Partial Information in a Market with Gaussian Drift," Papers 2205.08614, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    5. Zequn Li & Agnès Tourin, 2022. "A Finite Difference Scheme for Pairs Trading with Transaction Costs," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 601-632, August.
    6. Suhan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2019. "Optimal Convergence Trading with Unobservable Pricing Errors," Papers 1910.01438, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2019.

    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. Bahman Angoshtari & Tim Leung, 2019. "Optimal dynamic basis trading," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 307-335, September.
    2. Chiu, Mei Choi & Wong, Hoi Ying, 2013. "Optimal investment for an insurer with cointegrated assets: CRRA utility," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 52-64.
    3. Krauss, Christopher, 2015. "Statistical arbitrage pairs trading strategies: Review and outlook," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 09/2015, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    4. Tim Leung & Raphael Yan, 2018. "Optimal dynamic pairs trading of futures under a two-factor mean-reverting model," International Journal of Financial Engineering (IJFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Chiu, Mei Choi & Wong, Hoi Ying, 2012. "Mean–variance asset–liability management: Cointegrated assets and insurance liability," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(3), pages 785-793.
    6. Brenner, Robin J. & Kroner, Kenneth F., 1995. "Arbitrage, Cointegration, and Testing the Unbiasedness Hypothesis in Financial Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 23-42, March.
    7. Fenghui Yu & Wai-Ki Ching & Chufang Wu & Jia-Wen Gu, 2023. "Optimal Pairs Trading Strategies: A Stochastic Mean–Variance Approach," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 36-55, January.
    8. Felix Pretis, 2015. "Econometric Models of Climate Systems: The Equivalence of Two-Component Energy Balance Models and Cointegrated VARs," Economics Series Working Papers 750, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    9. Isabel Figuerola‐Ferretti & Ioannis Paraskevopoulos & Tao Tang, 2018. "Pairs‐trading and spread persistence in the European stock market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(9), pages 998-1023, September.
    10. Pretis, Felix, 2020. "Econometric modelling of climate systems: The equivalence of energy balance models and cointegrated vector autoregressions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 214(1), pages 256-273.
    11. Tat Wing Wong & Mei Choi Chiu & Hoi Ying Wong, 2017. "Managing Mortality Risk With Longevity Bonds When Mortality Rates Are Cointegrated," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(3), pages 987-1023, September.
    12. Sangmin Lee & Andrew Papanicolaou, 2016. "Pairs Trading Of Two Assets With Uncertainty In Co-Integration'S Level Of Mean Reversion," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(08), pages 1-36, December.
    13. Alessia Naccarato & Andrea Pierini & Giovanna Ferraro, 2021. "Markowitz portfolio optimization through pairs trading cointegrated strategy in long-term investment," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 81-99, April.
    14. Emmanouil Mavrakis & Christos Alexakis, 2018. "Statistical Arbitrage Strategies under Different Market Conditions: The Case of the Greek Banking Sector," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 17(2), pages 159-185, August.
    15. P. S. Lintilhac & A. Tourin, 2017. "Model-based pairs trading in the bitcoin markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 703-716, May.
    16. Lei, Yaoting & Xu, Jing, 2015. "Costly arbitrage through pairs trading," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-19.
    17. Kasper Larsen & Hang Yu, 2012. "Horizon dependence of utility optimizers in incomplete models," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 779-801, October.
    18. Richard Heaney, 1998. "A Test of the cost‐of‐carry relationship using the London Metal Exchange lead contract," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(2), pages 177-200, April.
    19. Tim Leung & Xin Li, 2015. "Optimal Mean Reversion Trading With Transaction Costs And Stop-Loss Exit," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(03), pages 1-31.
    20. Alexandre D'Aspremont, 2010. "Identifying small mean-reverting portfolios," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 351-364.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:arx:papers:1608.08268. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.