With US options which have become quite liquid nowadays, this is no problem anymore I guess. (at least for swing type of spreads, which you are also mentioning)
Options don't work for various reasons (premiums paid, guessing at volatility, etc.)...we prefer the actual equities, collecting interest on the short stock sale revenues to offset the long capital usage. Mr. Vette is right, there a lot of ways to trade pairs and mergers. All the best, Don
Don, Do you have extensive experience with intra-market calander spreads on futures. The range oscillator seems most predictable with this type of spread. I don't know of a safer way to trade pairs/spreads. Do you? Many may argue that there's not enough money with this tatic; howevever, I beg to differ. Patience is crucial. Also, staying with liquid underlyers is very important to minimize slippage. Walt
Congrats on your success with cal spreads, but this isn't the "pairs trading" strategy that is being discussed here.
Actually, when I started the thread, what I had in mind was calendar spreads on futures. I would be open to SSF and equities as well. Walt
With regard to Equities pairs trading, is there any other web based software out there? Has anybody had much sucess using MACD/RSI combinations? I notice that many correlated stocks have very similar stakeholders (eg Barclays in the two stocks in jpeg) Interesting volume activity whenever the spread widens, maybe barclays algo pair-ratio program kicking in.
Qcharts will allow to create a 4 leg pair chart and overlay any techincal indicator you want on that pair. You can use the dde link to create custom studies in excel. Also I have been pairs trading for nine years and have found it a good consistant strategy. No pairs trader that I know would have held bsc(or any stock) into earnings without put protection.