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Review of Financial Studies Vol. 26 No. 4 2013

Optimal Convergence Trade Strategies

Jun Liu; Allan Timmermann

University of California San Diego

Abstract

Convergence trades exploit temporary mispricing by simultaneously buying relatively underpriced assets and selling short relatively overpriced assets. This paper studies optimal convergence trades under both recurring and nonrecurring arbitrage opportunities represented by continuing and “stopped” cointegrated price processes and considers both fixed and stochastic (Poisson) horizons. Conventional long-short delta neutral strategies are generally suboptimal and it can be optimal to simultaneously go long (or short) in two mispriced assets. Optimal portfolio holdings critically depend on whether the risky asset position is liquidated when prices converge. Our theoretical results are illustrated on pairs of Chinese bank shares traded on both the Hong Kong and China stock exchanges.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhs130
Volume
26
Issue
4
Pages
1048-1086
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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