Technical Analysis with a Long Term Perspective: Trading Strategies and Market Timing Ability

43 Pages Posted: 9 May 2011 Last revised: 12 Aug 2011

See all articles by Dušan Isakov

Dušan Isakov

University of Fribourg (Switzerland) - Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences

Didier Marti

University of Fribourg - Faculty of Economics and Social Science

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 22, 2011

Abstract

This paper extends the literature on the profitability of technical analysis in three directions. First, we investigate the performance of complex trading rules based on moving averages computed over longer periods than those usually considered. Different trading rules are simulated on daily prices of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and we find that trading rules are more profitable when signals are generated over long horizons. Second, we analyse whether financial leverage can improve the profitability of different strategies, which appears to be the case when leverage is achieved with debt. Third, we propose a new market timing test that assesses whether a trading strategy can generate signals corresponding to bull and bear markets. The results of this test show that complex rules produce high proportions of accurate signals.

Keywords: Technical trading, Moving average rules, Options, Forecasting, Leverage, Market timing

JEL Classification: C63, G11, G13, G17

Suggested Citation

Isakov, Dušan and Marti, Didier, Technical Analysis with a Long Term Perspective: Trading Strategies and Market Timing Ability (June 22, 2011). International Conference of the French Finance Association (AFFI), May 11-13, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1833613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1833613

Dušan Isakov (Contact Author)

University of Fribourg (Switzerland) - Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences ( email )

Fribourg, CH 1700
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://www3.unifr.ch/cgf/en/

Didier Marti

University of Fribourg - Faculty of Economics and Social Science ( email )

Fribourg, CH 1700
Switzerland

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