Can "Noise" Be Traded?

Discussion in 'Strategy Building' started by ktmexc20, Jul 20, 2004.


  1. Cutten is correct.

    He just took the time to point out two very different scenarios.

    Cutten is able to recognize, practically, how noise affects making money.

    The mean being present, for Cutten, signifies that the range of values during this condition is such that nothing else is going on and therefore the noise evaluation comes out as he syas.

    At all other market times their is a dominance of other market factors and noise, while there, has no statistically significant expression. An example would be important short lived news, a time when the diversity of "reaction" is great and also affects a lot of "cancellation" of unfiltered signals.


    The later could be handled in a "carrier" type discussion as well.

    This example you are commenting upon from cutten is what serves to differentiate the kind of experiences that p[eople have had. I believe Cutten has been in the trenches and that you have a big library where you read a lot.

    I like cutten's views because markets are empirical rayher than theoretical. Noise is a little empirical as well.
     
    #101     Jul 23, 2004
  2. kut2k2

    kut2k2

    This doesn't help. Price movement is not a communication signal.

    Thunderdog got it right: "Noise" can be a very relative term.

    I would state that it is a relative term.

    Market noise is neither additive nor multiplicative nor "random". It is systemic. So my definition of market noise is practical: it is that portion of price movement that is untradable. By contrast, signal is that portion of price movement that is tradable.

    So the answer to the thread is "no"... imo. YMMV.
     
    #102     Jul 10, 2005
  3. On a practical note: let's say i use bollinger bands to measure the amplitute of the "noise". I would use lagging data to base my decisions on. i don't really like that. I wouldn't know how far back should i look in the past? I just really don't like it.. that's the drawdown of systematic trading versus discretionary trading, but maybe there's a way around.

    besides averaging down :D , any other way around this, that someone knows?
     
    #103     Jul 10, 2005
  4. abogdan has it right! The sum of all the squiggles is greater then a straight line so have systems that create profits from the noise------- use it as a means to profits.
     
    #104     Jul 10, 2005
  5. nitro

    nitro

    No.

    nitro
     
    #105     Jul 10, 2005
  6. I've always considered the term "noise" as merely a subjective label for "incomprehensible" market movement at a given time frame for a given trader. But I think I'm also coming close to understanding the concept of noise from the above angle.

    Let's assume the ideal model of movement for a near-perfectly "efficient" market = occasional gaps as new information is instantly priced in, followed by seemingly random fluctuations -- aka "noise". Well, what accounts for those fluctuations of after-noise but the net imperfections of the market participants? The more imperfect the market (in dissemination of information, quality of analysis, etc), the "noisier" the price action as information is discounted. Now, what happens if the market participants begin to discount the imperfections of the market itself, to the point where the effect on price is greater than that of the initial inflection point of new information? As more and more players are added to the efficient market model and attempt to get in on the same "discounting race", wouldn't it eventually become more and more profitable to concentrate on playing the noise rather than attempt to discount raw information itself, to the point where we come to the above conclusion? Just thinking out loud.
     
    #106     Jul 11, 2005
  7. nitro

    nitro

    It is important to define terms, otherwise we will go around in circles forever.

    1) Mathematical Noise by definition means it is indeterminate. Therefore, no edge can exist, even for God.

    2) What you are talking about is the definition of Chaos, seemingly random behavior that in fact has dynamics.

    If what the original poster asked is the Mathematical definition of noise or 1) above, the answer is no, even for God.

    If what the poster is asking is about 2), then the answer is yes, but you have to be really clever to find the signal.

    What you are saying is that there is no pure versions of 1) in the markets. I doubt it, but it may be true.

    nitro
     
    #107     Jul 11, 2005
  8. duard

    duard

    Are you talking about Mandelbrot's contentions?
     
    #108     Jul 11, 2005
  9. nitro

    nitro

    Not specifically, although there is a connection between fractals and chaos.

    However, the markets can be chaotic without being fractal.

    nitro
     
    #109     Jul 11, 2005
  10. Cesko

    Cesko

    Abogdan

    .........Unfortunately, there is only a handful of traders who understand this in depth. Oh, well ....

    FORTUNATELY
     
    #110     Jul 11, 2005