Pair Trading Strategy Journal

Discussion in 'Journals' started by jonnysharp, Aug 18, 2008.

  1. I started trading pairs on the 1st May and am ontrack for a 50% annualised return. However my PF is hanging below 2 at the moment, and i'm not really happy with some of my picks.

    I have started looking at alternate criteria, and will monitor results going forward. I am not going to take trades (as per my post above) that provide a profit opportunity of less than 5%.

    ACL/MR came up on my radar on Friday, but it did not offer the same profit potential as MR/RMD - a trade I entered that has a profit potential of 5.6%

    Adrian
     
    #1601     Oct 11, 2009
  2. Magnas

    Magnas

    Hello all,

    Thank you for very inspiring posts.

    I am new to pair trading, but would like to focus energy this way as I found this topic quite challenging.

    I would like analyze pairs in Excel. Could anyone please help me how to calculate and graph standard deviation from mean in Excel? (I understand from the graphs here that it is what PF calls Plus/Minus graph). I will appreciate any help as I am really stuck here...

    I am including my sample Excel with one “demo” pair. I have calculate Ratio and Mean there. Anyone can please help me with coding calculation of standard deviation from mean?

    Thank you. Magnas.
     
    #1602     Oct 11, 2009
  3. =stdev(a1:a2) etc

    whereby a1:a2 just reflects the mean data over the period that you want it. So for 14 day mean it might be

    =stdev(a1:a14)

    etc
     
    #1603     Oct 11, 2009
  4. magon

    magon

    Adrian, I like more MR/RMD because this combination has a RSI very close to 30 (Oversold) RMD and ACL both are under a resistance level (it looks like ACL went throuth it today)
     
    #1604     Oct 12, 2009
  5. magon

    magon

    I agree that MR/RMD has a higher % return if every thing goes in our direction
     
    #1605     Oct 12, 2009
  6. sysre,

    You can see some of my backtested data previously on the thread. I'm interested in your results and specifically over what time period you have tested your system.

    For example, how did it perform in low volatilty periods and what did you note about how it performed over different market conditions etc
     
    #1606     Oct 13, 2009
  7. 0008

    0008

    is there any margin reduction for pari trading stocks?

    If I buy 100 QQQQ and short 100 SPY, what is the margin required?
     
    #1607     Oct 13, 2009
  8. R1234

    R1234


    This is the equity curve of the pair strategy I backtested. It assumes MOC with 1/2 cent commission per share. It consists of 25 pairs, most of which I got from this thread.

    The backtest is, of course, cherry picked - I only chose pairs that had consistent equity curves over the backtest period.

    I guess when I go live I'll be dropping out pairs if the equity curve of that pair turns down (maybe 2 stdev below the regression line of the equity curve). And adding pairs in a similar fashion.
     
    #1608     Oct 13, 2009

  9. I am curious as to what charting software was used to run the studies on attached spread history?
     
    #1609     Oct 13, 2009
  10. Per my post on the 5th, today looks like a good day to exit at least some of the CVS/WAG.

    Been doing some work on forward testing pairs using ETF's against stocks and the results look somewhat promising. Not a lot of homeruns, but very few big blow-ups, either. Using a smaller std deviation than I do traditionally.

    Trade 'em well, pair gang.
     
    #1610     Oct 13, 2009