IntroductionPairs trading is an investment strategy used to exploit financial markets that are out of equilibrium. It consists of a long position in one security and a short position in another security at a predetermined ratio; see Elliott et al. [1]. Traders bet on the direction of the stocks relative to each other. Such a trading strategy is typically employed by hedge fund companies. Deviations in prices are monitored closely and used as basis for changing positions, taking advantage of market inefficiencies to obtain some profits. Hence, financial computing technologies with algorithmic trading capability, such as the one Abstract This paper addresses the problem of designing an efficient platform for pairs-trading implementation in real time. Capturing the stylised features of a spread process, i.e., the evolution of the differential between the returns from a pair of stocks, exhibiting a heavy-tailed mean-reverting process is also dealt with. Likewise, the optimal recovery of time-varying parameters in a return-spread model is tackled. It is important to solve such issues in an integrated manner to carry out the execution of trading strategies in a dynamic market environment. The Kalman and hidden Markov model (HMM) multiregime dynamic filtering approaches are fused together to provide a powerful method for pairs-trading actualisation. Practitioners' considerations are taken into account in the way the new filtering method is automated. The synthesis of the HMM's expectationmaximisation algorithm and Kalman filtering procedure gives rise to a set of self-updating optimal parameter estimates. The method put forward in this paper is a hybridisation of signal-processing algorithms. It highlights the critical role and beneficial utility of data fusion methods. Its appropriateness and novelty support the advancements of accurate predictive analytics involving big financial data sets. The algorithm's performance is tested on historical return spread between Coca-Cola and Pepsi Inc. 's equities. Through a back-testing trade, a hypothetical trader might earn a non-zero profit under the assumption of no transaction costs and bid-ask spreads. The method's success is illustrated by a trading simulation. The findings from this work show that there is high potential to gain when the transaction fees are low, and an investor is able to benefit from the proposed interplay of the two filtering methods. Tenyakov and Mamon J Big Data (2017) Data (2017) 4:46 put forward in this paper, are necessary for the efficient and successful implementation of a pairs trade.
RESEARCHWhen the relative performance of the short position is better than that of the long position, this strategy is going to be profitable regardless of stock market regimes. So, a speculator who pairs a long position in a retail stock with a short position in a rival stock or an index ETF could end up with a profit. Pairs trading could be viewed alternatively as a mechanism to hedge both sector and market risks. When there is a financial crisis, two stoc...