How Some Bankers Made a Million by Trading Just Two Securities?

31 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2011 Last revised: 19 Dec 2016

See all articles by Kalle Rinne

Kalle Rinne

Universite du Luxembourg - Department of Finance

Matti Suominen

Aalto University School of Business

Date Written: December 13, 2016

Abstract

In this paper, we study a pair trading strategy that utilizes short-term return reversals in the stock market. Using U.S. data, we show that returns to our pair trading strategy exceed reasonable estimates for transaction costs. The strategy also generates positive alpha when controlling for the standard risk factors. Second, using transaction level data from Finland, focusing on a popular pair, we provide evidence that these kinds of pair trading returns are compensation from providing liquidity. On the days when the expected returns to our pair trading strategy are the highest, the trading volume is abnormally high and, judging from active brokers’ net trades, nearly 45% of all brokers (or their customers) engage in pair trading in accordance with our trading strategy. These brokers are mainly counterparties to few brokers that trade large quantities of stocks inconsistent with our strategy.

Keywords: pair trading, short-term return reversals, liquidity provision

JEL Classification: G10, G12, G23

Suggested Citation

Rinne, Kalle and Suominen, Matti, How Some Bankers Made a Million by Trading Just Two Securities? (December 13, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1796064 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1796064

Kalle Rinne

Universite du Luxembourg - Department of Finance ( email )

L-1511 Luxembourg
Luxembourg

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/view/kallerinne/home

Matti Suominen (Contact Author)

Aalto University School of Business ( email )

PO Box 1210
FI-00101 Helsinki
Finland
+358-50-5245678 (Phone)

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