Up: 4:3-4

Estimating the algorithmic complexity of stock markets

Olivier Brandouy; Jean-Paul Delahaye; Lin Ma

Algorithmic Finance (2015), 4:3-4, 159-178
DOI: 10.3233/AF-150052

Published: Abstract, PDF.
Archived: SSRN.

Abstract

Randomness and regularities in finance are usually treated in probabilistic terms. In this paper, we develop a different approach in using a non-probabilistic framework based on the algorithmic information theory initially developed by Kolmogorov (1965). We develop a generic method to estimate the Kolmogorov complexity of numeric series. This approach is based on an iterative “regularity erasing procedure” (REP) implemented to use lossless compression algorithms on financial data. The REP is found to be necessary to detect hidden structures, as one should “wash out” well-established financial patterns (i.e. stylized facts) to prevent algorithmic tools from concentrating on these non-profitable patterns. The main contribution of this article is methodological: we show that some structural regularities, invisible with classical statistical tests, can be detected by this algorithmic method. Our final illustration on the daily Dow-Jones Index reveals a weak compression rate, once well- known regularities are removed from the raw data. This result could be associated to a high efficiency level of the New York Stock Exchange, although more effective algorithmic tools could improve this compression rate on detecting new structures in the future.

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Philip Maymin

University of Bridgeport

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Jayaram Muthuswamy

Kent State University

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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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Online ISSN: 2157-6203
Print ISSN: 2158-5571