So, to comment on this strategy: this is definitely not something you will take and trade out of the box. Both variants of this strategy, when forced to choose a side, walk straight into the Feb 5 volatility explosion. Luckily, switching between ZIV and VXZ keeps the account from completely exploding in a spectacular failure. To note, both variants of the VRP strategy, GJR Garch and the 22 day rolling realized volatility, suffer their own period of spectacularly large drawdown–the historical volatility in 2007-2008, and currently, though this year has just been miserable for any reasonable volatility strategy, I myself am down 20%, and I’ve seen other strategists down that much as well in their primary strategies.
That said, I do think that over time, and if using the tail-end-of-the-curve instruments such as VXZ and ZIV (now that XIV is gone and SVXY no longer supported on several brokers such as Interactive Brokers and RobinHood), that there are a number of strategies that might be feasible to pass off as a sort of trading analogue to machine learning’s “weak learner”.
That said, I’m not sure how many vastly different types of ways to approach volatility trading there are that make logical sense from an intuitive perspective (that is, “these two quantities have this type of relationship, which should give a consistent edge in trading volatility” rather than “let’s over-optimize these two parameters until we eliminate every drawdown”).
While I’ve written about the VIX3M/VIX6M ratio in the past, which has formed the basis of my proprietary trading strategy, I’d certainly love to investigate other volatility trading ideas out in public. For instance, I’d love to start the volatility trading equivalent of an AllocateSmartly type website–just a compendium of a reasonable suite of volatility trading strategies, track them, charge a subscription fee, and let users customize their own type of strategies. However, the prerequisite for that is that there are a lot of reasonable ways to trade volatility that don’t just walk into tail-end events such as the 2007-2008 transition, Feb 5, and so on.
Furthermore, as some recruiters have told me that I should also cross-post my blog scripts on my Github, I’ll start doing that also, from now on.
***One last topic: a general review of Datacamp. As some of you may know, I instruct a course on datacamp. But furthermore, I’ve spent quite a bit of time taking courses (particularly in Python) on there as well, thanks to having access by being an instructor.
Generally, here’s the gist of it: Datacamp is a terrific resource for getting your feet wet and getting a basic overview of what technologies are out there. Generally, courses follow a “few minutes of lecture, do exercises using the exact same syntax you saw in the lecture”, with a lot of the skeleton already written for you, so you don’t wind up endlessly guessing. Generally, my procedure will be: “try to complete the exercise, and if I fail, go back and look at the slides to find an analogous block of code, change some names, and fill in”.
Ultimately, if the world of data science, machine learning, and some quantitative finance is completely new to you–if you’re the kind of person that reads my blog, and completely glosses past the code: this is the resource for you, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. You’ll take some courses that give you a general tour of what data scientists, and occasionally, quants, do. And in some cases, you may have a professor in a fairly advanced field, like Kris Boudt, teach a fairly advanced topic, like the state-of-the art rugarch package (this is an industry-used package, and is actively maintained by Alexios Ghalanos, an economist at Amazon, so it’s far more than a pedagogical tool).
That said, for someone like me, who’s trying to port his career-capable R skills to Python to land a job (my last contract ended recently, so I am formally searching for a new role), Datacamp doesn’t quite do the trick–just yet. While there is a large catalog of courses, it does feel like there’s a lot of breadth, though not sure how much depth in terms of getting proficient enough to land interviews on the sole merits of DataCamp course completions. While there are Python course tracks (EG python developer, which I completed, and Python data analyst, which I also completed), I’m not sure they’re sufficient in terms of “this track was developed with partnership in industry–complete this capstone course, and we have industry partners willing to interview you”.
Also, from what I’ve seen of quantitative finance taught in Python, and having to rebuild all functions from numpy/pandas, I am puzzled as to how people do quantitative finance in Python without libraries like PerformanceAnalytics, rugarch, quantstrat, PortfolioAnalytics, and so on. Those libraries make expressing and analyzing investment ideas far more efficient, and removes a great chance of making something like an off-by-one error (also known as look-ahead bias in trading). So far, I haven’t seen the Python end of Datacamp dive deep into quantitative finance, and I hope that changes in the near future.
So, as a summary, I think this is a fantastic site for code-illiterate individuals to get their hands dirty and their feet wet with some coding, but I think the opportunity to create an economic, democratized, interest to career a-la-carte, self-paced experience is still very much there for the taking. And given the quality of instructors that Datacamp has worked with in the past (David Matteson–the regime change expert, I think–along with many other experts), I think Datacamp has a terrific opportunity to capitalize here.
So, if you’re the kind of person who glosses past the code: don’t gloss anymore. You can now take courses to gain an understanding of what my code does, and ask questions about it.
***Thanks for reading.
NOTE: I am currently looking for networking opportunities and full-time roles related to my skill set. Feel free to download my resume or contact me on LinkedIn.