Sunday, February 17, 2013

HFT to Reversion : The Greatest Marginal Advantage

Having been a part of building operations which are strictly HFT and absolutely reversion, here are a few observations.

 As we know, from HFT to reversion, the slightest edge, informational or strategic can make the difference.  For HFT it is doing whatever it takes to get a peak at momentum or over weighting the probable.  With reversion it is under weighting an event which will occur but no one knows where or when.   HFT will not accept the market's underlying volatility and is a market taker while reversion accepts it and conversely is a market maker.   Unlike most investors, HFT is risk seeking with gains for very short durations in time and are risk averse with losses over longer durations in time.  Time to reversion is not meaningless but definitely not as important.  So markets in time are always looking for the great marginal advantage (GMA). 

In reversion time, here is QRiskValue's Over/Under Values along with GMA leanings.