Statistical Arbitrage and Securities Prices
提出统计套利机会的概念,并证明排除它会对证券价格动态施加一种新型鞅限制,该限制无需模型假设,可用于解决市场有效性检验中的联合假设问题。
This article introduces the concept of a statistical arbitrage opportunity (SAO). In a finite-horizon economy, a SAO is a zero-cost trading strategy for which (i) the expected payoff is positive, and (ii) the conditional expected payoff in each final state of the economy is nonnegative. Unlike a pure arbitrage opportunity, a SAO can have negative payoffs provided that the average payoff in each final state is nonnegative. If the pricing kernel in the economy is path independent, then no SAOs can exist. Furthermore, ruling out SAOs imposes a novel martingale-type restriction on the dynamics of securities prices. The important properties of the restriction are that it (1) is model-free, in the sense that it requires no parametric assumptions about the true equilibrium model, (2) can be tested in samples affected by selection biases, such as the peso problem, and (3) continues to hold when investors' beliefs are mistaken. The article argues that one can use the new restriction to empirically resolve the joint hypothesis problem present in the traditional tests of the efficient market hypothesis. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.