Spectral Volume Models: Universal High-Frequency Periodicities in Intraday Trading Activities

88 Pages Posted: 30 Sep 2022 Last revised: 10 Feb 2025

See all articles by Lintong Wu

Lintong Wu

Peking University

Ruixun Zhang

Peking University; MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering

Yuehao Dai

Peking University

Date Written: September 21, 2022

Abstract

We develop spectral volume models to systematically estimate, explain, and exploit the high-frequency periodicity in intraday trading activities using Fourier analysis. The framework consistently recovers periodicities at specific frequencies in three steps, despite their low signal-to-noise ratios. This reveals persistent and universal high-frequency periodicities in the United States (US) and Chinese stock markets in recent years, and the dominant frequencies explain a significant fraction of the total variance of intraday volumes. We provide evidence that this phenomenon likely reflects the behaviors of trading algorithms with repeated and regular trading instructions. Finally, we demonstrate that uncovering such high-frequency periodicities improves intraday volume predictions and VWAP execution qualities, yields insights for price informativeness of algorithmic trading, and generates excess returns.

Keywords: Trading volume; Periodicity; Algorithmic trading; VWAP execution; Price informativeness; Excess return

undefined

JEL Classification: C32, C55, G12, G14

Suggested Citation

Wu, Lintong and Zhang, Ruixun and Dai, Yuehao, Spectral Volume Models: Universal High-Frequency Periodicities in Intraday Trading Activities (September 21, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4230610 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4230610

Lintong Wu

Peking University ( email )

Ruixun Zhang (Contact Author)

Peking University ( email )

5 Yiheyuan Road
Haidian District
Beijing, Beijing 100871
China

MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering ( email )

100 Main Street
E62-611
Cambridge, MA 02142

Yuehao Dai

Peking University ( email )

No. 38 Xueyuan Road
Haidian District
Beijing, Beijing 100871
China

0 References

0 Citations

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
678
Abstract Views
2,238
Rank
83,643
PlumX Metrics