Case File
efta-02725017DOJ Data Set 11OtherEFTA02725017
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Unknown
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DOJ Data Set 11
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efta-02725017
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Alex Gerasev
Bounded Tradable Processe
EFTA02725017
Confidentiality
■ Information in this presentation is strictly
private & confidential
EFTA_R1_02212454
EFTA02725018
Background
■ Strategy live at Buttonwood Group Trading (BGT)
07/2011-1o/2012 (16 months); back-tested from
01/2006 with similar performance results
■ Founder of Quanterra Advisors LLC and developer of
quantitative trading strategies since 06/2010
■ Project Manager/ Subject Matter Expert, Global
Banking & Markets at RBS and ABN AMRO 2001-2010
■ M.Sc. in Financial Mathematics, University of Chicago
■ B.Sc. in Physics & IT, Novosibirsk State University
■ Research atVEPP-4 electron-positron collider of
Novosibirsk Institute of Nuclear Physics (11 GeV
energy range)
EFTA_R1_02212455
EFTA02725019
Track Record
Buttonwood Group Trading, 07/2011 — 10/2012
EFTA_R1_02212456
EFTA02725020
Live Track Record Ptc
Date range
Reserved capital
Average utilized capital (AUC)
Available leverage
Reinvestment of gains into the strategy
No
Asset classes
07/2011 —10/2012 (16 months)
Total net PnL
Positive months
Negative months
Best month
Worst month
Sharpe ratio
3.5m
1.4m
15X
Equities (85%); futures (15%)
o.97m (67.5% return on AUC)
13 (81%)
3 (19%)
O. 27M
- 0.07M
2.67
EFTA_R1_02212457
EFTA02725021
Live Track Record - BGT
Monthly Net PnL
300,000.00
250,000.00
200,000.00
150,000.00
100,000.00
50,000.00
0.00
-50,000.00
-100,000.00
2011-07 zon-o8 2011-09 2011-10 2011-11 2011-12 2012-01 2012-02
•
2012-04
2012-06 2012-07 2012-08 2012-09 2012-10
EFTA_R1_02212458
EFTA02725022
Live Track Record BG
Cumulative Net Return on AUC
80.00%
70.00%
6o.00%
50.0o%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
io.00%
o.00%
2011.07 2011.08 2011.09 2011.10 2011.11 2011.12 2012.01 2012-02 2012.03 2012.04 2012.05 2012.06 2012-07 2012.08 2012.09 2012.10
EFTA_R1_02212459
EFTA02725023
Live Track Record — BG7
Comments:
• Reinvestment of strategy gains back into the
strategy would have resulted in significant
performance improvement due to compounding
(total return on AUC 89.9% vs. 67.5%)
• Strategy performance was negatively impacted
on at least 3 occasions by emergency re-allocation
of capital to other traders
EFTA_R1_02212460
EFTA02725024
Back-Testing Track Record
01/2006 - 12/2012 (84 months)
EFTA02725025
Back-Testing Track Record
Date range
01/2006 - 12/2012 (84 months)
Reserved capital
i.om
Average utilized capital (AUC)
o.62m
Available leverage
isx
Reinvestment of gains into the strategy
No
Asset classes
Same as live trading
Annualized net PnL
Positive months
Negative months
Best month
Worst month
Sharpe ratio
0.57m (57.8%)
70 (83%)
14 (17%)
0.42M
-0.17M
3.12
EFTA_R1_02212462
EFTA02725026
Back-Testing Track Record
Observations:
■ Slightly better performance vs. live performance
during 07/2011 —10/2012 period (no capital re-
allocation issues as mentioned above)
• Slightly better overall performance (higher
average volatility)
• Market volatility results in better performance;
best years for the strategy were 2008 and 2009
EFTA_R1_02212463
EFTA02725027
Strategy Description
Bounded Tradable Processes
EFTA02725028
Strategy Description: Bounded
Tradable Processes
"Process" can be
single financial instrument (stock, future, option, FX, etc.)
two-legged spread S = X— aY, where X and Yare financial
instruments (stocks, futures, options, FX, etc.)
three-legged spread S = X— aY— bZ, where X, Y, Z are
financial instruments
complex combination spreads e.g. S = aX/Y, S=aX —bY/gZ,
etc.
"Tradable" means that all components of S can be
traded at any time in required quantities (given
liquidity constraints and other technicalities)
EFTA JR 1_02212465
EFTA02725029
Arbitrage Bounds
Tradable Process that has lower, upper, or both lower
and upper arbitrage bounds can be unwound at a pre-
determined price
Various "mechanics" enforcing bounds
Asset swap ("fungibility"): X may be swapped for Y at
holder's discretion — ensures that X> Y; if X < Y, buy bunch
of X, swap for Y and sell Yfor higher price and riskless
profit ("pure" arbitrage)
Multi-step asset swap: similar to above, but involving
multiple steps to unwind complex spread at pre-
determined price
"Hard" bounds — guaranteed to be able to unwind the
process at a known price
EFTA_R1_02212466
EFTA02725030
Non-Arbitrage Bounds
Process should not go beyond certain values due to
fundamentals; however there is no way to unwind if it
does
Example: "asset quality"
Equity with voting rights vs. equity without voting rights
Higher-grade commodity vs. lower-grade commodity
Senior vs. subordinated debt
Once the process moves beyond the bound and
information spreads through the market, the relationship
would typically get restored as participants buy superior
asset for less, or holders of inferior asset replace it with
superior asset while booking a profit
More dangerous than arbitrage bounds — reflect in
position sizing (e.g. io% of arbitrage-bounded trade)
EFTA_R1_02212467
EFTA02725031
Example: Arbitrage Bounded
Process ("hard" bound at zero)
EFTA_R1_02212468
EFTA02725032
Example: Non-Arbitrage Bounded
Process ("soft" bound at zero)
25
20
15
10
5
0
S
EFTA_R1_02212469
EFTA02725033
Approach to Trading
■ The closer the process gets to its bound, the
bigger the position with i00% of target
position size right at the bound
■ As the process moves away from the bound,
reduce position size
■ As the process oscillates we generate PnL
buy buying lower and selling higher
■ The schedule of process values and
corresponding position sizes is known as
loading curve
EFTA_R1_02212470
EFTA02725034
Loading Curve Example
EFTA_R1_02212471
EFTA02725035
Profitability Analysis
Volatility is good!
Great opportunities when position can be
entered or increased close to the bound and
unwound as the process moves away
Worst-case scenario: process approaching its
bound with very low volatility and staying at
the bound for prolonged period of time
EFTA_R1_02212472
EFTA02725036
Other PnL Contributors
■ Market making
■ Intraday fluctuations
■ Capturing market impact
■ Mean-reversion
EFTA_R1_02212473
EFTA02725037
Loading Curve Optimization
■ Goal: create a loading curve shape that would
• maximize PnL
• minimize drawdowns
• minimize PnL volatility
• maximize Sharpe ratio
• other considerations
■ Highly computationally-intensive
optimization techniques based on historical
data
EFTA_R1_02212474
EFTA02725038
Competitive Advantage
Space not nearly as crowded as pure
arbitrage trades
Requires significant R&D efforts that further
reduce competition
Unique and highly computationally intensive
process of model calibration and
optimization
EFTA_R1_02212475
EFTA02725039
Capacity and Scalability
EFTA02725040
Existing Product Groups
14 product groups (tradable processes) are
fully set up and are available for trading
Estimated capacity without adverse impact
on performance: up to io —15m
Further scalability with some performance
impact: up to 20-25m
EFTA_R1_02212477
EFTA02725041
Adding New Product Groups
New product groups (tradable processes)
may be added
Approximately 2 months of R&D per product
group
Many interesting opportunities in
international markets
EFTA_R1_02212478
EFTA02725042
Expanding Across Asset Classes
■ Same quantitative research methods may be
applied to other asset classes and across asset
classes
■ Virtually unlimited scalability
■ Some ideas:
• Commodity calendar spreads or spread options +
physical storage
• Inter-commodity spreads + physical asset (refinery,
power plant)
• Convertible debt
• Debt + CDS
EF1A_R1_02212479
EFTA02725043
Summary
EFTA_R1_022 12480
EFTA02725044
Summary
Time-tested strategy with excellent
performance characteristics
Market-neutral with no correlation with the S&P
500
Highly scalable
Diversified portfolio of trades already live
Robust quant research framework
Large search universe for adding new product
groups
Further scalability by expanding across asset
classes
EFT4_81_0221 481
EFTA02725045
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