Arbitrage Strategy

Quote from bone:

I have done consulting work for two very prominent HFT electronic trading firms in Chicago and Manhattan [ household names in the biz you would instantly recongnize ] - they both spread trade equity pairs and baskets on an automated basis at very high frequencies, and they both call it 'stat arb'.

One of the firms does so much volume, it actually owns a brokerage named after a citrus fruit.

The other firm does so much volume they really should have their own brokerage - if there was any money in it to be had.

Taking little nibbles out of highly correlated spread differentials on a milliseconds timeframe. All day long.
 
Quote from Shanb:

Pair trading is the most simplest form of Stat Arb. If pair trading is not stat arb then what is?

you are kidding right? see examples above. or link below. if have problem with english-there is links on left side in many other languages.read very first sentence. i personally would call it (and OP approach)something like market neutral. OP-2600 trades a week? commissions+ spreads will eat you alive in very first month.just try it live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrage

on top of that OP probably is going to use margin account and margin doesn't come for free either.
 
Quote from Bob111:

you are kidding right? see examples above. or link below. if have problem with english-there is links on left side in many other languages.read very first sentence. i personally would call it (and OP approach)something like market neutral. OP-2600 trades a week? commissions+ spreads will eat you alive in very first month.just try it live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrage

on top of that OP probably is going to use margin account and margin doesn't come for free either.

So you are you saying that you don't consider mean reversion pair trading to be a form of stat arb?

One can obviously put on a market neutral spread and not be relying on a statistical relationship for the trade. But, trading a pair for mean reversion almost always relies on some sort of statistcal property of the spread. Hence, Stat arb lol
 
Quote from Shanb:

So you are you saying that you don't consider mean reversion pair trading to be a form of stat arb?

One can obviously put on a market neutral spread and not be relying on a statistical relationship for the trade. But, trading a pair for mean reversion almost always relies on some sort of statistcal property of the spread. Hence, Stat arb lol

no..cause it's not arb. maybe for you..maybe you like the name,cause it sounds cool or something.. or maybe you think that it was "risk free"...it's not. arb is risk free. get this trough you head.(Joe Pesci).
here is the simplest form of arbitrage that helps me buy my first PC for trading long time ago. two stores are selling same product-you buy it in one(cheaper) and return to another store for store credit(higher price, often x2 or more). YOU HAVE NO RISK in this transaction,cause if they refuse to accept this item-you simply return it back to initial store. i use to call it store arb..

i've been trading "market neutral systems" for decade or so..large basket of stocks against certain ETF's,pairs back in 2002-3..and i still called market neutral.cause there is a PLENTY of events that can happen thru the day(forget about hold it for a week or more). all my positions are closed EOD. so..go head, feel free to give me a lesson...

stat abr..one leg halted,opens up +\- 50% on middle of the day..yeah..stat arb..or stock that use to correlate 90%+ slips 30% away in 30 min of trading..it's all happens to me in the past..stat arb my ass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_arbitrage

In academic literature, "statistical arbitrage" is opposed to (deterministic) arbitrage.[1] In deterministic arbitrage, a sure profit can be obtained from being long some securities and short others.
 
Quote from Shanb:

Quote from savagemp5:

If you buy a pair, any pair that you think its called stat arb, then I'll ask you:

- If 1 day both products =$0, do you make or lose. If you lose $, its not an arb, and certainly not statistically at all and its a risk.

- If 1 day a major news hit 1 of the pair, does the other product move together ? If it doesn't again its not an arb, and there's risk involve.

Don't mixed up pair trading, hedging, delta one, Neutral, Spread trading with stat arb.
[/QUOTE

Betting on the convergence of a Cointegrating spread is stat arb. You are betting on mean reversion because of the statistical property of the time series.

A fundamental or news event can of course come out and eliminate the cointegrating relationship between two assets. Its upto the trader to know when that has happened! Cointegration does not exist into perpetuity! When you are betting on the convergence of a spread you are betting that the cointegrating relationship will exist going forward.

You mention the word 'betting', 'co-integration' and 'convergence' 'news event'.So its not risk free and its not a true arb, because things may or may not go well. This is just as similar as me trying to short Nikkei 225 and Long USD/JPY pair. You think its stat arb ?

Good luck ;)
 
Quote from Shanb:

Pair trading is the most simplest form of Stat Arb. If pair trading is not stat arb then what is?

I think risk arbitrage is the more appropriate term. Although in some circles I guess risk arb and stat arb can be synonymous.
 
This thread is surreal!

Why do you people think it's called statistical arbitrage?

Stat arb is only as good as the model(s) it's built on, thus it involves risk.

Deterministic arbitrage is what most laymen associate with "arbitrage", and it is indeed risk-free profit.
 
Are these considered arbitrage?

A fun manager with 1Bil AUM front run leveraged ETF or index futures with his personal$ right before dumping-investing 1Bil of client's $ into stocks of the same area

A fun manager buys, say any highly leveraged futures or fx pair with clients$ & short the same instrument simultaneously with his own$. If it goes up, he gains track record & 25% performance fee. If it goes down, he keeps management fee & his own big profit.
 
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