Abstract
This work develops a feasible computation procedure for trend-following trading under a bull-bear switching market model. In the asset model, the drift of the stock price switches between two parameters corresponding to an uptrend (bull market) and a downtrend (bear market) according to a partially observable Markov chain. The objective is to buy and sell the underlying stock to maximize an expected return. It is shown in Dai et al. (SIAM J Financ Math 1:780–810, 2010; Optimal trend following trading rules. Working paper) that an optimal trading strategy can be obtained in terms of two threshold levels. Finding the threshold levels turns out to be a difficult task. In this paper, we develop a stochastic approximation algorithm to approximate the threshold levels. One of the main advantages of this approach is that one need not solve the associated HJB equations. We also establish the convergence of the algorithm and provide numerical examples to illustrate the results.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Dai, M., Jin, H., Zhong, Y., Zhou, X.Y.: Buy low and sell high. In: Chiarella, C., Novikov, A. (eds.) Contemporary Quantitative Finance: Essays in Honor of Eckhard Platen, pp. 317–334. Springer, Berlin/London (2010)
Dai, M., Yi, F.: Finite horizontal optimal investment with transaction costs: a parabolic double obstacle problem. J. Differ. Equ. 246, 1445–1469 (2009)
Dai, M., Zhang, Q., Zhu, Q.: Trend following trading under a regime switching model. SIAM J. Financ. Math. 1, 780–810 (2010)
Dai, M., Zhang, Q., Zhu, Q.: Optimal trend following trading rules. Working paper
Davis, M.H.A., Norman, A.R.: Portfolio selection with transaction costs. Math. Oper. Res. 15, 676–713 (1990)
Elliott, R.J., Aggoun, L., Moore, J.B.: Hidden Markov Models. Springer, New York (1995)
Iwarere, S., Barmish, B.R.: A confidence interval triggering method for stock trading via feedback control. In: Proceedings of American Control Conference, Baltimore (2010)
Kushner, H.J., Yin, G.: Stochastic Approximation and Recursive Algorithms and Applications, 2nd edn. Springer, New York (2003)
Liu, H., Loewenstein, M.: Optimal portfolio selection with transaction costs and finite horizons. Rev. Financ. Stud. 15, 805–835 (2002)
Magill, M.J.P., Constantinides, G.M.: Portfolio selection with transaction costs. J. Econ. Theory 13, 264–271 (1976)
Merton, R.C.: Optimal consumption and portfolio rules in a continuous time model. J. Econ. Theory 3, 373–413 (1971)
Shreve, S.E., Soner, H.M.: Optimal investment and consumption with transaction costs. Ann. Appl. Probab. 4, 609–692 (1994)
Song, Q.S., Yin, G., Zhang, Q.: Stochastic optimization methods for buyinglow and-selling-high strategies. Stoch. Anal. Appl. 27, 523–542 (2009)
Woham, W.M.: Some applications of stochastic differential equations to optimal nonlinear filtering. SIAM J. Control 2, 347–369 (1965)
Yin, G., Liu, R.H., Zhang, Q.: Recursive algorithms for stock liquidation: a stochastic optimization approach. SIAM J. Optim. 13, 240–263 (2002)
Zervos, M., Johnsony, T.C., Alazemi, F.: Buy-low and sell-high investment strategies. Working paper (2011)
Zhang, H., Zhang, Q.: Trading a mean-reverting asset: buy low and sell high. Automatica 44, 1511–1518 (2008)
Acknowledgements
We thank Professor Qiji Zhu for fruitful discussions that led to the improvement of the computational results. This research was supported in part by the Army Research Office under W911NF-12-1-0223.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nguyen, D., Yin, G., Zhang, Q. (2014). A Stochastic Approximation Approach for Trend-Following Trading. In: Mamon, R., Elliott, R. (eds) Hidden Markov Models in Finance. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 209. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7442-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7442-6_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7441-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7442-6
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)