eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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ALGORITHMIC PAIRS TRADING: EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The objective of this thesis is to study whether the algorithmic pairs trading with Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) generates abnormal return. Particularly, I firstly study whether the trading strategy used in this thesis generates higher return than the benchmark index MSCI World and secondly even higher return than stocks.

DATA AND METHODOLOGY

The dataset includes over 66,000 possible pairs of ETFs worldwide from 2004 to 2012. In addition, I use the empirical results from the relevant papers in comparison. To test the hypothesis, I first apply cointegration tests to identify ETFs to be used in pairs trading strategies. Subsequently, I select ETF pairs to compose a pairs trading portfolio based on profitability and finally compare the results to the benchmark index and the empirical results of the relevant papers.

RESULTS

The empirical results of this thesis show that pairs trading with ETFs generate significant abnormal return with low volatility from the eight year trading period compared to the benchmark index as well as stocks traded with pairs trading strategy. The cumulate net profit is 105.43% and an annual abnormal return of 27.29% and with volatility of 10.57%. Furthermore, the results confirmed market neutrality with no significant correlation with MSCI World index.