Tid: 9 juni 2017 kl 9.25-10.00.

Föredragshållare: Måns Tillman

Titel: Online market microstructure prediction using hidden Markov models

Abstract Over the last decades, financial markets have undergone dramatic changes. With the advent of the arbitrage pricing theory, along with new technology, markets have become more efficient. In particular, the new high-frequency markets, with algorithmic trading operating on micro-second level, make it possible to translate "information" into price almost instantaneously. Such phenomena are studied in the field of market microstructure theory, which aims to explain and predict them.

In this thesis, we model the dynamics of high frequency markets using non-linear hidden Markov models (HMMs). Such models feature an intuitive separation between observations and dynamics, and are therefore highly convenient tools in financial settings, where they allow a precise application of domain knowledge. HMMs can be formulated based on only a few parameters, yet their inherently dynamic nature can be used to capture well-known intra-day seasonality eects that many other models fail to explain.

Due to recent breakthroughs in Monte Carlo methods, HMMs can now be efficiently estimated in real-time. In this thesis, we develop a holistic framework for performing both real-time inference and learning of HMMs, by combining several particle-based methods. Within this framework, we also provide methods for making accurate predictions from the model, as well as methods for assessing the model itself.

In this framework, a sequential Monte Carlo bootstrap filter is adopted to make on-line inference and predictions. Coupled with a backward smoothing filter, this provides a forward filtering/backward smoothing scheme. This is then used in the sequential Monte Carlo expectation-maximization algorithm for finding the optimal hyper-parameters for the model.

To design an HMM specifically for capturing information translation, we adopt the observable volume imbalance into a dynamic setting. Volume imbalance has previously been used in market microstructure theory to study, for example, price impact. Through careful selection of key model assumptions, we define a slightly modified observable as a process that we call scaled volume imbalance. The outcomes of this process retain the key features of volume imbalance (that is, its relationship to price impact and information), and allows an efficient evaluation of the framework, while providing a promising platform for future studies. This is demonstrated through a test on actual financial trading data, where we obtain high-performance predictions. Our results demonstrate that the proposed framework can successfully be applied to the field of market microstructure.

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