Pair Trading Strategy Journal

Hi all,

I'm about to install PTF on my notebook. Unfortunately I got some issues creating a database caused by a SQL DB error. The error message is like ''Unable to open ''pairTradeFinder'' data base. Logon error...''

If anyone experienced the same problems and was able to solve it please let me know. Any help would be much appreciated.

All trouble shooting recs by PTF have been done. Unfortunately without any success.

Thanks in advance
saico
 
Well, time to bite the bullet and get a bit more serious with my pair trading.
I spent some money over the weekend and bought PTF although I still have some reservations about certain parts of the app. However, support finally emailed me and gave me the impression that they were working towards sorting some of the issues out. I still think its one of the best pairs trading apps out there so lets hope they dont stop developing it. It can only be to their advantage.
I also bought a couple more books - " Statistical Arbitrage etc by A. Pole " and " Pairs Trading etc by Vidyamurthy ". I bought Rob Friesen's book " The art of the arb " a couple of years back and it was that that got me into this in the first place. I dont have Rob's book as an ebook but the other two are and if anyone wants a copy just email me at drwho88888 at yahoo.com. They cost me around $160 for the two and I'll happily send you the pdfs for $20 to mitigate my outlay.

Today I've also upped my trading and I'm now betting £10/pt rather than £1/pt during my PTF trial (up over £500 during my PTF trial). I'm pretty convinced that I can carry forward my previous success into the future.

Best of luck to you all, especially jonnysharp. I'll pop back every now and then to see how you're all going and to post my experiences. Have fun.
 
I'm now quite keen to maximise my profits by being able to get the best value when I buy and sell and so would appreciate any thoughts from those who are based in the UK as I generally trade UK stocks.
There seems to be 2 realistic ways to trade. CFD's and Spreadbetting. At the moment I'm spreadbetting with Tradefair. I've also got accounts with CMC and IG. At the moment Tradefair are quoting 134.3 - 134.5 for Bodycote and 1310.3 - 1316.7 for Dana Oil as way of an example.
Can anyone post what markets they've found to be the best for this type of trading with a couple of examples of prices.
Thanks
 
Quote from Dr Who:

I'm now quite keen to maximise my profits by being able to get the best value when I buy and sell and so would appreciate any thoughts from those who are based in the UK as I generally trade UK stocks.
There seems to be 2 realistic ways to trade. CFD's and Spreadbetting. At the moment I'm spreadbetting with Tradefair. I've also got accounts with CMC and IG. At the moment Tradefair are quoting 134.3 - 134.5 for Bodycote and 1310.3 - 1316.7 for Dana Oil as way of an example.
Can anyone post what markets they've found to be the best for this type of trading with a couple of examples of prices.
Thanks
More...

CMC Spread Bets is quoting:
BodyCote : 135.15 / 136.10
Dana Oil : 1303.02 / 1308.98

I've just got my CMC account set - looking to start spread bet pair trading come tomorrow / this week. (ps - Thanks for the books Dr. Who)
 
Yes, CMC and Tradefair seem comparable usually. IG seem to have wider spreads but I'm wondering how the CFD guys fare. Is this a better way to go ?
 
Quote from Dr Who:



There seems to be 2 realistic ways to trade. CFD's and Spreadbetting.
More...

I think CFD's are the only realistic way to trade. You can read up about the differences between the two elsewhere and, dont take my word as gospel.

However, I think that all you need to know about spreadbetting is expressed in the following sentence. Spreadbet co's are effectively bookmakers setting prices and spreads for you, whilst CFD prices are based on the underlying market. IGMarkets (and others) will charge you .1% comms for UK (2cents for US stocks) for CFd's, the spreads are tight and you can get direct market access. Idealing too, is worth a look, but I don't know about liquidity there.

I would strongly advise anyone to use CFD's as opposed to spreadbets for pair trading.
 
Thanks tradingtrading. I had a suspicion that this may be the case. I'll look into a little more and will open the necessary CFD accounts for future trades.
 
tradingtrading is right.

i trade here in london - US, UK, European stocks. given you are getting serious and starting to play with more significant money, i would switch to trading the underlying stocks or swaps / cfd's based on them.

personally, I would look for a reputable broker and trade the stocks (if not UK or Swiss) and the swap otherwise. this gives you access to the full range of order types and proper agency execution vs whatever the spreadbet firm feels like offering at the time.
 
Quote from CBuster:

tradingtrading is right.

i trade here in london - US, UK, European stocks. given you are getting serious and starting to play with more significant money, i would switch to trading the underlying stocks or swaps / cfd's based on them.

personally, I would look for a reputable broker and trade the stocks (if not UK or Swiss) and the swap otherwise. this gives you access to the full range of order types and proper agency execution vs whatever the spreadbet firm feels like offering at the time.
More...

Damn! And here I am setting up my Spread Betting account! Well - i'm going to give the Spread Bets a go (contrary to the good advice here). I suppose I need to start small and make my own mistakes though and see how I do. If I make 100 quid profit in a month - then thats really good in my book!
 
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