Up: 2:2

Optimizing sparse mean reverting portfolios

I. Róbert Sipos; János Levendovszky

Algorithmic Finance (2013), 2:2, 127-139
DOI: 10.3233/AF-13021

Published: Abstract, PDF.
Archived: SSRN.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate trading with optimal mean reverting portfolios subject to cardinality constraints. First, we identify the parameters of the underlying VAR(1) model of asset prices and then the quantities of the corresponding Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process are estimated by pattern matching techniques. Portfolio optimization is performed according to two approaches: (i) maximizing the predictability by solving the generalized eigenvalue problem or (ii) maximizing the mean return. The optimization itself is carried out by stochastic search algorithms and Feed Forward Neural Networks (FFNNs). The presented solutions satisfy the cardinality constraint thus providing sparse portfolios to minimize the transaction costs and to maximize interpretability of the results. The performance has been tested on historical data (SWAP rates, SP 500, and FOREX). The proposed trading algorithms have achieved 29.57% yearly return on average, on the examined data sets. The algorithms prove to be suitable for high frequency, intraday trading as they can handle financial data up to the arrival rate of every second.

Managing Editor

Philip Maymin

University of Bridgeport

Deputy Managing Editor

Jayaram Muthuswamy

Kent State University

Advisory Board

Kenneth J. Arrow

Stanford University

Herman Chernoff

Harvard University

David S. Johnson

AT&T Labs Research

Leonid Levin

Boston University

Myron Scholes

Stanford University

Michael Sipser

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Richard Thaler

University of Chicago

Stephen Wolfram

Wolfram Research

Editorial Board

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Peter Bossaerts

California Institute of Technology

Emanuel Derman

Columbia University

Ming-Yang Kao

Northwestern University

Pete Kyle

University of Maryland

David Leinweber

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Richard J. Lipton

Georgia Tech

Avi Silberschatz

Yale University

Robert Webb

University of Virginia

Affiliate Editors

Giovanni Barone-Adesi

University of Lugano

Bruce Lehmann

University of California, San Diego

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