IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v56y2015icp1-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costly arbitrage through pairs trading

Author

Listed:
  • Lei, Yaoting
  • Xu, Jing

Abstract

We study the optimal trading policy of an arbitrageur who can exploit temporary mispricing in a market with two convergent assets. We build on the model of Liu and Timmermann (2013) and include transaction costs, which impose additional limits to the implementation of such convergence trade strategy. We show that the presence of transaction costs could reveal an endogenous stop-loss concern in a certain economy, which affects the optimal policy of the arbitrageur in significant ways. Using pairs of dual-listed Chinese stock shares as samples and a pairs trading strategy based on standard deviation of the spread as benchmark, we demonstrate the efficiency of the strategy implied by our model. Several extensions of our model are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei, Yaoting & Xu, Jing, 2015. "Costly arbitrage through pairs trading," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:56:y:2015:i:c:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2015.04.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016518891500072X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jedc.2015.04.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S. G. Kou, 2002. "A Jump-Diffusion Model for Option Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(8), pages 1086-1101, August.
    2. Tourin, Agnès & Yan, Raphael, 2013. "Dynamic pairs trading using the stochastic control approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1972-1981.
    3. Min Dai & Yifei Zhong & Yue Kuen Kwok, 2011. "Optimal arbitrage strategies on stock index futures under position limits," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 394-406, April.
    4. Binh Do & Robert Faff, 2012. "Are Pairs Trading Profits Robust To Trading Costs?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 35(2), pages 261-287, June.
    5. Ning Cai & S. G. Kou, 2011. "Option Pricing Under a Mixed-Exponential Jump Diffusion Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(11), pages 2067-2081, November.
    6. Broussard, John Paul & Vaihekoski, Mika, 2012. "Profitability of pairs trading strategy in an illiquid market with multiple share classes," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 1188-1201.
    7. Brennan, Michael J & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1990. "Arbitrage in Stock Index Futures," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 7-31, January.
    8. Robert Elliott & John Van Der Hoek & William Malcolm, 2005. "Pairs trading," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 271-276.
    9. Duan, Jin-Chuan & Pliska, Stanley R., 2004. "Option valuation with co-integrated asset prices," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 727-754, January.
    10. Masaki Mori & Alan J. Ziobrowski, 2011. "Performance of Pairs Trading Strategy in the U.S. REIT Market," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(3), pages 409-428, September.
    11. Chiu, Mei Choi & Wong, Hoi Ying, 2011. "Mean-variance portfolio selection of cointegrated assets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1369-1385, August.
    12. Dai, Min & Kwok, Yue Kuen & You, Hong, 2007. "Intensity-based framework and penalty formulation of optimal stopping problems," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3860-3880, December.
    13. Perlin, M., 2007. "Evaluation of pairs trading strategy at the Brazilian financial market," MPRA Paper 8308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Jun Liu & Allan Timmermann, 2013. "Optimal Convergence Trade Strategies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(4), pages 1048-1086.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alvaro Cartea & Luhui Gan & Sebastian Jaimungal, 2018. "Trading Cointegrated Assets with Price Impact," Papers 1807.01428, arXiv.org.
    2. Haipeng Xing, 2019. "A singular stochastic control approach for optimal pairs trading with proportional transaction costs," Papers 1911.10450, arXiv.org.
    3. Haipeng Xing, 2022. "A Singular Stochastic Control Approach for Optimal Pairs Trading with Proportional Transaction Costs," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-23, March.
    4. Sühan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2021. "Optimal convergence trading with unobservable pricing errors," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 133-161, April.
    5. P. S. Lintilhac & A. Tourin, 2017. "Model-based pairs trading in the bitcoin markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 703-716, May.
    6. Guang Zhang, 2020. "Pairs Trading with Nonlinear and Non-Gaussian State Space Models," Papers 2005.09794, arXiv.org.
    7. Suhan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2019. "Optimal Convergence Trading with Unobservable Pricing Errors," Papers 1910.01438, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2019.
    8. Krauss, Christopher, 2015. "Statistical arbitrage pairs trading strategies: Review and outlook," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 09/2015, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    9. Zequn Li & Agnès Tourin, 2022. "A Finite Difference Scheme for Pairs Trading with Transaction Costs," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 601-632, August.
    10. Suhan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2017. "Pairs Trading under Drift Uncertainty and Risk Penalization," Papers 1704.06697, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2018.
    11. Thomas Nanfeng Li & Agnès Tourin, 2016. "Optimal pairs trading with time-varying volatility," International Journal of Financial Engineering (IJFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(03), pages 1-29, September.
    12. Sühan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2018. "Pairs Trading Under Drift Uncertainty And Risk Penalization," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(07), pages 1-24, November.
    13. Álvaro Cartea & Sebastian Jaimungal, 2016. "Algorithmic Trading Of Co-Integrated Assets," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(06), pages 1-18, September.
    14. Fernando Caneo & Werner Kristjanpoller, 2021. "Improving statistical arbitrage investment strategy: Evidence from Latin American stock markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 4424-4440, July.
    15. T. N. Li & A. Papanicolaou, 2019. "Statistical Arbitrage for Multiple Co-Integrated Stocks," Papers 1908.02164, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2022.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krauss, Christopher, 2015. "Statistical arbitrage pairs trading strategies: Review and outlook," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 09/2015, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    2. Bahman Angoshtari & Tim Leung, 2019. "Optimal dynamic basis trading," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 307-335, September.
    3. Laila Taskeen Qazi & Atta Ur Rahman & Saleem Gul, 2015. "Which Pairs of Stocks should we Trade? Selection of Pairs for Statistical Arbitrage and Pairs Trading in Karachi Stock Exchange," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(3), pages 215-244.
    4. R. Todd Smith & Xun Xu, 2017. "A good pair: alternative pairs-trading strategies," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 31(1), pages 1-26, February.
    5. Endres, Sylvia & Stübinger, Johannes, 2017. "Optimal trading strategies for Lévy-driven Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 17/2017, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    6. Bahman Angoshtari, 2016. "On the Market-Neutrality of Optimal Pairs-Trading Strategies," Papers 1608.08268, arXiv.org.
    7. Geetu Aggarwal & Navdeep Aggarwal, 2021. "Risk-adjusted Returns from Statistical Arbitrage Opportunities in Indian Stock Futures Market," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 28(1), pages 79-99, March.
    8. Alessia Naccarato & Andrea Pierini & Giovanna Ferraro, 2021. "Markowitz portfolio optimization through pairs trading cointegrated strategy in long-term investment," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 81-99, April.
    9. Bruno Breyer Caldas & João Frois Caldeira & Guilherme Vale Moura, 2016. "Is Pairs Trading Performance Sensitive To The Methodologies?: A Comparison," Anais do XLII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 42nd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 130, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    10. P. S. Lintilhac & A. Tourin, 2017. "Model-based pairs trading in the bitcoin markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 703-716, May.
    11. Fenghui Yu & Wai-Ki Ching & Chufang Wu & Jia-Wen Gu, 2023. "Optimal Pairs Trading Strategies: A Stochastic Mean–Variance Approach," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 36-55, January.
    12. Boming Ning & Prakash Chakraborty & Kiseop Lee, 2023. "Optimal Entry and Exit with Signature in Statistical Arbitrage," Papers 2309.16008, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    13. Fabio Pizzutilo, 2013. "A Note on the Effectiveness of Pairs Trading For Individual Investors," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 3(3), pages 763-771.
    14. Yerkin Kitapbayev & Tim Leung, 2018. "Mean Reversion Trading With Sequential Deadlines And Transaction Costs," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(01), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Suhan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2019. "Optimal Convergence Trading with Unobservable Pricing Errors," Papers 1910.01438, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2019.
    16. Tim Leung & Jiao Li & Xin Li, 2018. "Optimal Timing to Trade along a Randomized Brownian Bridge," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-23, August.
    17. Xiaodong Chen & Tim Leung & Yang Zhou, 2022. "Constrained dynamic futures portfolios with stochastic basis," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-33, March.
    18. Sühan Altay & Katia Colaneri & Zehra Eksi, 2021. "Optimal convergence trading with unobservable pricing errors," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 133-161, April.
    19. Fernando Caneo & Werner Kristjanpoller, 2021. "Improving statistical arbitrage investment strategy: Evidence from Latin American stock markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 4424-4440, July.
    20. Tim Leung & Kevin W. Lu, 2023. "Monte Carlo Simulation for Trading Under a L\'evy-Driven Mean-Reverting Framework," Papers 2309.05512, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pairs trading; Risky arbitrage; Delta-neutral strategies; Transaction costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:56:y:2015:i:c:p:1-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.