This thing was hot in the 80's and the market is now very efficient.
Pair Trading Strategy Journal
- Thread starter jonnysharp
- Start date
The course is free and a nice introduction to pairs trading. A few academic studies are cited and that was wortwhile. All in all, a good freebie.
I have read enough comments in this message string to think that PTF is a decent/good piece of software. I haven't gotten around to testing it yet, but I will.
My only apprehension is the questionable communication and support. I have found that satisfactory communication is a good indicator of better financial products.
If Jared and PTF had the customer- service reputation of Hoi and Buttontrader, I think he might be kicking some serious ass in acquiring new business. Afterall, the hard work is designing and writing software like PTF. Communicating is the easy part---but it's also a virtue that customers really appreciate.
I also sent Jared an email early this week and didn't hear back from him which was weird, but I did catch him on Skype today and asked him what's up and he said he has replied to everyone however he is currently travelling and been having issues using wifi and something about the mail server? also emails he sent from ptalerts haven't been getting through to some members as the words ''tradealerts'' in the url are blocked by some ISPs, he setup a gmail account to send to some members who claimed they didn't receive a response. I guess he needs to hire more staff to cope.
I guess it depends on the lookback period you are using. If you take 30 days and you want to trade stocks that are diverging in the last 10 days chances are that the correl wont be high! I would more rely on the historical rolling correlation and the other indicators then. But there is a difference between a drifting away correl (slowly but surely) and a quick snap move down because the stocks are diverging.
Also, pairs that are cointegrated do not necessarily have a high correl. So, some good pairs may be good for trading but dont really have a good correl. Maybe the backtest thing could help him?
Given the evidence against correlation, I find it hard to base my own trading decisions on correlation. I make imperfect minor decisions of a trade on the historical movement of a pairs correlation. But this could also be a bogus choice, without any real significance. My trades show a 0.16 correlation between correlation and profits. Further evidence to me that correlation is insignificant in pair trading.
I tend to focus more on historical returns of the pair, and I see many good priofits from low correlated stocks, and also a few big losers that I chose when correlation was 90+, and then descended to low levels before I exited.
Just my 2c, and only my own personal experience.
Adrian
anybody doing pairs for intraday ? sorry if discussed b4 as i'm new to the thread and haven't checked the 250 pages of it yet
guess u already have it but nevertheless imo is a good tool for findin correlations http://www.sectorspdr.com/correlation/ and not bad this one either http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/MoneyAndFinance.html and good enough for ratios http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=jpm:bac&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=0
interested in the banks and liquid ones pairs, kinda WFC, JPM, BAC, and not so liquid COF, USB and BBT
also XOM and CVX for energy-oil, and all NYSE
anybody regularly on those ? anybody doing intraday ?
tia
regards
guess u already have it but nevertheless imo is a good tool for findin correlations http://www.sectorspdr.com/correlation/ and not bad this one either http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/MoneyAndFinance.html and good enough for ratios http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=jpm:bac&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=0
interested in the banks and liquid ones pairs, kinda WFC, JPM, BAC, and not so liquid COF, USB and BBT
also XOM and CVX for energy-oil, and all NYSE
anybody regularly on those ? anybody doing intraday ?
tia
regards
I switched to about 80% intraday and 20% overnight. The overnights are usually the same pairs I'd trade intraday. I don't trade any of the "retail pairs" like hd/low, ups/fdx, cvx/xom, etc, etc.
I haven't posted for a while, so here's a quick update, stimulated by the above poster.
I trade UK stocks only and although things have slowed down I am still making profits.
Because I was doing well I did try a US pair that historically had a 100% trading record but it immediately went into reverse almost at the point I put on the trade
Stupidly I let it ride as I thought it would come back but it never did and I traded out for a huge loss.That was a very rare ocurrance for me and probably the last time I do US stocks. I'm much more in tune with the UK ones and probably because I live in the UK, I have a much greater intuitive feel for where the market is going.
Anyway I'm up to 75.8% success rate with an average 1.54% ROI for each trade which generally last about 6-7 days. So I'm happy with the way things are going and I'm now in my fourth month using PTF.