From a leading trading systems developer, how to make profitable trades when there are no obvious trends How does a trader find alpha when markets make no sense, when price shocks cause diversification to fail, and when it seems impossible to hedge? What strategies should traders, long conditioned to trend trading, deploy? In Alpha Trading: Profitable Strategies That Remove Directional Risk, author Perry Kaufman presents strategies and systems for profitably trading in directionless markets and in those experiencing constant price shocks. The book
- Details how to exploit new highs and lows
- Describes how to hedge primary risk components, find robustness, and craft a diversification program
- Other titles by Kaufman: New Trading Systems and Methods, 4th Edition and A Short Course in Technical Trading, both by Wiley
Given Kaufman's 30 years of experience trading in almost every kind of market, his Alpha Trading will be a welcome addition to the trading literature of professional and serious individual traders for years to come.
Table of Contents:
Preface ix
Chapter 1 Uncertainty 1
Impact on Trading 2
The Inevitable Price Shocks 3
Why So Much about Price Shocks? 9
Complexity and Contagion Risk 10
The Ugly Side 11
Taking Defensive Action 11
Accepting Performance for What it is 13
Chapter 2 The Importance of Price Noise 15
Noise Explained 15
Different Markets 19
A Closer Look at Equity Index Markets 21
Importance of Noise 22
Determining the Strategy 25
Capitalizing on the Trend of Noise 29
Chapter 3 Pairs Trading: Understanding the Process 31
The Process 32
The Basics 32
Target Volatility 54
Home Builders 65
Using ETFs 78
Portfolio of Home Builder Pairs 84
Execution and the Part-Time Trader 89
Stop-Losses 89
Trading Intraday 90
Key Points to Remember 90
Chapter 4 Pairs Trading Using Futures 93
Futures 94
Mechanics of a Pairs Trade in Futures 97
Inflation Scares 100
Trading Energy Pairs 102
Revisiting Momentum with Energy Markets 105
A Miniportfolio of Natural Gas Pairs 112
The Inflation Pairs: Crude, the EURUSD, and Gold 119
Equity Index Pairs 128
Leveraging with Futures 138
London Metals Exchange Pairs 141
Volatility Filters 153
Interest Rate Futures 154
Summary 154
Chapter 5 Risk-Adjusted Spreads 155
Dell and Hewlett-Packard 155
Trading Both Long-Term (Hedged) Trends and Short-Term Mean Reversion 159
Gold, Platinum, and Silver 161
The Platinum/Gold Ratio 163
Implied Yield 170
The Yield Curve 174
Trend Trading of London Metal Exchange Pairs 179
Summary 184
Chapter 6 Cross-Market Trading and the Stress Indicator 187
The Crossover Trade 188
The Stress Indicator 189
Gold, Copper, and Platinum 195
Mining Companies 198
Agribusiness Pairs 206
The Major Energy Producers 208
Portfolio of Cross-Market Energy Pairs 220
Other Opportunities 226
Some Final Notes 228
Chapter 7 Revisiting Pairs Using the Stress Indicator 229
Futures Markets and the Stress Indicator 229
Equity Index Futures 230
Interest Rate Futures 238
The Portfolio Spreadsheet 245
Summary of Pairs Trading 248
Chapter 8 Traditional Market-Neutral Trading 249
Home Builders 250
Trend or Mean Reversion? 250
Basic Market-Neutral Concept 251
Volatility-Adjusting the Position Size 264
Arbing the Dow: A Large-Scale Program 267
Thoughts about Market-Neutral Trend Following 274
Market Neutral Using Futures 274
Market-Neutral Comments 277
Chapter 9 Other Stat-Arb Methods 281
Trade-Offs 282
System Briefs 282
New Highs and New Lows 290
Merger Arb 290
Creating Your Own Index Arbitrage 292
Arbing the Dow 301
Arbing the S&P 500—Index Arbitrage 302
About the Companion Web Site 305
About the Author 306
Index 307
About the Author :
PERRY KAUFMAN has more than thirty years of experience in financial engineering and hedge funds, and is well-known for his role in algorithmic trading. Since 1971, he has specialized in the development of fully systematic trading programs in derivatives and equities as well as risk management and leverage overlays. He is the author of New Trading Systems and Methods, Fourth Edition, A Short Course in Technical Trading, both from Wiley, and other books and articles that have gained worldwide acclaim.
Review :
“Whenever Perry Kaufman writes a new book . . .system traders take note. What separates Kaufman’s work from that of many other writers on trading strategies is that he goes into the nuts and bolts of designing and testing system candidates. . . The website that accompanies the book has spreadsheets that make the calculations necessary for setting up trades ever so much easier. . . What Kaufman offers is different — essentially a do-it-yourself manual for the trader who wants to develop strategies that remove directional risk and unearth opportunities for creating alpha.” (Seeking Alpha)
