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A Reality Check on Technical Trading Rule Profits in US Futures Markets

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  • Park, Cheol-Ho
  • Irwin, Scott H.

Abstract

This paper investigates the profitability of technical trading rules in US futures markets over the 1985-2004 period. To account for data snooping biases, we evaluate statistical significance of performance across technical trading rules using White's Bootstrap Reality Check test and Hansen's Superior Predictive Ability test. These methods directly quantify the effect of data snooping by testing the performance of the best rule in the context of the full universe of technical trading rules. Results show that the best rules generate statistically significant economic profits only for two of 17 futures contracts traded in the US. This evidence indicates that technical trading rules generally have not been profitable in US futures markets after correcting for data snooping biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, Cheol-Ho & Irwin, Scott H., 2005. "A Reality Check on Technical Trading Rule Profits in US Futures Markets," 2005 Conference, April 18-19, 2005, St. Louis, Missouri 19039, NCR-134 Conference on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ncrfiv:19039
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.19039
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lukas Menkhoff & Mark P. Taylor, 2007. "The Obstinate Passion of Foreign Exchange Professionals: Technical Analysis," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 936-972, December.
    3. Wang, Shan & Jiang, Zhi-Qiang & Li, Sai-Ping & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2015. "Testing the performance of technical trading rules in the Chinese markets based on superior predictive test," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 439(C), pages 114-123.
    4. Flavio Ivo Riedlinger & João Nicolau, 2020. "The Profitability in the FTSE 100 Index: A New Markov Chain Approach," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 27(1), pages 61-81, March.
    5. Ikhlaas Gurrib & Mohammad Nourani & Rajesh Kumar Bhaskaran, 2022. "Energy crypto currencies and leading U.S. energy stock prices: are Fibonacci retracements profitable?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, December.
    6. Jasdeep S. Banga & B. Wade Brorsen, 2019. "Profitability of alternative methods of combining the signals from technical trading systems," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 32-45, January.
    7. Han, Yufeng & Hu, Ting & Yang, Jian, 2016. "Are there exploitable trends in commodity futures prices?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 214-234.
    8. Ioana-Andreea Boboc & Mihai-Cristian Dinică, 2013. "An Algorithm for Testing the Efficient Market Hypothesis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-11, October.
    9. Andrei Shynkevich, 2021. "Impact of bitcoin futures on the informational efficiency of bitcoin spot market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 115-134, January.
    10. Chiang, Mi-Hsiu & Chiu, Hsin-Yu & Kuo, Wei-Yu, 2021. "Predictive ability of similarity-based futures trading strategies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Taylor, Mark P. & Wang, Zigan, 2016. "Technical trading: Is it still beating the foreign exchange market?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 188-208.
    12. Nicolás Acevedo Vélez, 2007. "The cattle crush strategy: trading opportunities for cattle producers," Revista Ecos de Economía, Universidad EAFIT, October.
    13. Ikhlaas Gurrib & Firuz Kamalov & Elgilani Elshareif, 2021. "Can the Leading US Energy Stock Prices be Predicted using the Ichimoku Cloud?," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(1), pages 41-51.
    14. Qi Xu & Ying Wang, 2021. "Managing volatility in commodity momentum," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(5), pages 758-782, May.
    15. Jying‐Nan Wang & Hung‐Chun Liu & Jiangze Du & Yuan‐Teng Hsu, 2019. "Economic benefits of technical analysis in portfolio management: Evidence from global stock markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 890-902, April.
    16. Mihai Cristian Dinică & Erica Cristina (Balea) Dinică, 2015. "Testing the Weak-Form Market Eficiency of the Euronext Wheat," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 18(55), pages 25-38, March.
    17. Taylor, Mark & Hsu, Po-Hsuan, 2014. "Forty Years, Thirty Currencies and 21,000 Trading Rules: A Large-scale, Data-Snooping Robust Analysis of Technical Trading in t," CEPR Discussion Papers 10018, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Shynkevich, Andrei, 2016. "Predictability in bond returns using technical trading rules," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 55-69.
    19. Benjamin R. Auer, 2021. "Have trend-following signals in commodity futures markets become less reliable in recent years?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 35(4), pages 533-553, December.
    20. Yamani, Ehab, 2021. "Foreign exchange market efficiency and the global financial crisis: Fundamental versus technical information," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 74-89.
    21. Xiaojie Xu & Yun Zhang, 2022. "Commodity price forecasting via neural networks for coffee, corn, cotton, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, sugar, and wheat," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 169-181, July.
    22. Ikhlaas Gurrib & Olga Starkova & Dalia Hamdan, 2024. "Trading Momentum in the U.S. Crude Oil Futures Market," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(5), pages 593-604, September.
    23. Ikhlaas Gurrib & Firuz Kamalov & Olga Starkova & Adham Makki & Anita Mirchandani & Namrata Gupta, 2023. "Performance of Equity Investments in Sustainable Environmental Markets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-28, May.

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