Skip to content

Statistical Arbitrage Strategies

Market-neutral strategies exploiting price relationships.

Overview

Statistical arbitrage (stat arb) strategies exploit temporary mispricings between related securities, typically maintaining market neutrality.

Strategies in This Section

Strategy Description Complexity
Pairs Trading Trade related stock pairs Intermediate
Sector Neutral Neutral within sectors Intermediate
Beta Neutral Market-neutral construction Advanced

Quick Example

Text Only
signal pairs:
  // Trade spread between related stocks
  spread = prices[A] - beta * prices[B]
  zscore = (spread - rolling_mean(spread, 60)) / rolling_std(spread, 60)

  // Revert spread extremes
  emit -zscore

portfolio main:
  weights = pairs.long_short()
  constraints:
    net_exposure = 0.0  // Market neutral
  backtest from 2015-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Key Characteristics

  • Market neutral: Long and short positions offset
  • Low correlation: Returns independent of market direction
  • Higher turnover: Active trading to capture small mispricings
  • Capacity constrained: Limited by liquidity

Expected Performance

Metric Typical Range
Sharpe 0.8 - 1.5
Annual Return 4% - 10%
Max Drawdown 5% - 15%
Market Beta -0.1 to 0.1