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Profitability of pairs trading strategy in an illiquid market with multiple share classes

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  • Broussard, John Paul
  • Vaihekoski, Mika

Abstract

We investigate the practical issues of implementing the self-financing pairs portfolio trading strategy presented by Gatev et al. (2006). We also provide new evidence on the profitability of pairs trading under different weighting structures and trade initiation conditions. Using data from the Finnish stock market over the period 1987–2008, we find pairs trading to be profitable even after allowing for a one day delay in the trade initiation after the signal. On average, the annualized return can be as high as 12.5%, though requiring trading on days a pair is traded lowers the return approximately by three percentage points. On the other hand, lowering the threshold for opening a pair is found to increase returns even after accounting for trading costs, indicating that there might be a more optimal trade initiation threshold available than that presented in earlier literature. The profits are not related to market risk. Pairs trading strategy is found to produce positive alpha during the sample period.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:22:y:2012:i:5:p:1188-1201
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2012.06.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hakkio, Craig S. & Rush, Mark, 1991. "Cointegration: how short is the long run?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 571-581, December.
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    3. Arturo Bris & William N. Goetzmann & Ning Zhu, 2007. "Efficiency and the Bear: Short Sales and Markets Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1029-1079, June.
    4. Mika Vaihekoski, 2009. "Pricing of liquidity risk: empirical evidence from Finland," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(19), pages 1547-1557.
    5. Evan Gatev & William N. Goetzmann & K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 2006. "Pairs Trading: Performance of a Relative-Value Arbitrage Rule," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 797-827.
    6. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2009_021 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Baoqiang Zhan & Shu Zhang & Helen S. Du & Xiaoguang Yang, 2022. "Exploring Statistical Arbitrage Opportunities Using Machine Learning Strategy," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 861-882, October.
    2. 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.
    3. Andreas Mikkelsen & Frode Kj rland, 2018. "High-frequency Pairs Trading on a Small Stock Exchange," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(4), pages 78-88.
    4. Nicolas Huck, 2013. "The high sensitivity of pairs trading returns," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(14), pages 1301-1304, September.
    5. 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.
    6. Isabel Figuerola‐Ferretti & Ioannis Paraskevopoulos & Tao Tang, 2018. "Pairs‐trading and spread persistence in the European stock market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(9), pages 998-1023, September.
    7. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Luis Gil-Alana & Alex Plastun, 2017. "Searching for Inefficiencies in Exchange Rate Dynamics," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 49(3), pages 405-432, March.
    8. Nyberg, Peter & Vaihekoski, Mika, 2014. "Descriptive analysis of the Finnish stock market : Part II," Research Discussion Papers 10/2014, Bank of Finland.
    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. 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.
    11. Sovan Mitra & Andreas Karathanasopoulos, 2019. "Firm Value and the Impact of Operational Management," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 26(1), pages 61-85, March.
    12. Hossein Rad & Rand Kwong Yew Low & Robert Faff, 2016. "The profitability of pairs trading strategies: distance, cointegration and copula methods," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(10), pages 1541-1558, October.
    13. Mar Grande & Florentino Borondo & Juan Carlos Losada & Javier Borondo, 2024. "Anti-Persistent Values of the Hurst Exponent Anticipate Mean Reversion in Pairs Trading: The Cryptocurrencies Market as a Case Study," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.
    14. Sharjil Muktafi Haque & A. K. Enamul Haque, 2014. "Pairs Trading Strategy in Dhaka Stock Exchange: Implementation and Profitability Analysis," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(8), pages 1091-1105, August.
    15. Brett C. Olsen & Sanjay R. Sisodiya & Judith Swisher & Neil Fargher, 2016. "A note on assessing the relation between CEO characteristics and stock performance: Alpha Above Replacement," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 56(3), pages 787-802, September.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Nyberg, Peter & Vaihekoski, Mika, 2014. "Descriptive analysis of the Finnish stock market: Part II," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2014, Bank of Finland.
    19. João Frois Caldeira & Gulherme Valle Moura, 2013. "Selection of a Portfolio of Pairs Based on Cointegration: A Statistical Arbitrage Strategy," Brazilian Review of Finance, Brazilian Society of Finance, vol. 11(1), pages 49-80.
    20. Lei, Yaoting & Xu, Jing, 2015. "Costly arbitrage through pairs trading," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-19.
    21. 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.
    22. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_010 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Sabino da Silva, Fernando A.B. & Ziegelmann, Flavio A. & Caldeira, João F., 2023. "A pairs trading strategy based on mixed copulas," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 16-34.
    24. Jia Miao & Jason Laws, 2016. "Profitability Of A Simple Pairs Trading Strategy: Recent Evidences From A Global Context," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(04), pages 1-18, June.
    25. Andreas Mikkelsen, 2018. "Pairs trading: the case of Norwegian seafood companies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 303-318, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pairs-trading; Statistical-arbitrage; Long-Short; OMXH; Finland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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