Return and Risk of Pairs Trading Using a Simulation-Based Bayesian Procedure for Predicting Stable Ratios of Stock Prices

David Ardia, Lukasz T. Gatarek, Lennart Hoogerheide and Herman van Dijk
Additional contact information
Lukasz T. Gatarek: Institute of Econometrics and Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, Lodz, 90-255, Poland
Lennart Hoogerheide: Department of Econometrics and Tinbergen Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, The Netherlands

Econometrics, 2016, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: We investigate the direct connection between the uncertainty related to estimated stable ratios of stock prices and risk and return of two pairs trading strategies: a conditional statistical arbitrage method and an implicit arbitrage one. A simulation-based Bayesian procedure is introduced for predicting stable stock price ratios, defined in a cointegration model. Using this class of models and the proposed inferential technique, we are able to connect estimation and model uncertainty with risk and return of stock trading. In terms of methodology, we show the effect that using an encompassing prior, which is shown to be equivalent to a Jeffreys’ prior, has under an orthogonal normalization for the selection of pairs of cointegrated stock prices and further, its effect for the estimation and prediction of the spread between cointegrated stock prices. We distinguish between models with a normal and Student t distribution since the latter typically provides a better description of daily changes of prices on financial markets. As an empirical application, stocks are used that are ingredients of the Dow Jones Composite Average index. The results show that normalization has little effect on the selection of pairs of cointegrated stocks on the basis of Bayes factors. However, the results stress the importance of the orthogonal normalization for the estimation and prediction of the spread—the deviation from the equilibrium relationship—which leads to better results in terms of profit per capital engagement and risk than using a standard linear normalization.

Keywords: Bayesian analysis; cointegration; linear normalization; orthogonal normalization; pairs trading; statistical arbitrage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B23 C C00 C01 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1146/4/1/14/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1146/4/1/14/ (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Return and Risk of Pairs Trading using a Simulation-based Bayesian Procedure for Predicting Stable Ratios of Stock Prices (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jecnmx:v:4:y:2016:i:1:p:14-:d:65426

Access Statistics for this article

Econometrics is currently edited by Ms. Jasmine Liu

More articles in Econometrics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().