[R-SIG-Finance] Sullivan, Timmerman and White 1999: TA rules, and R

[Brian G. Peterson]

OK, so Josh actually reviewed the paper rather than relying on hazy 
recollection (my bad).

Based on this, you'd apply the relevant indicators for MA periods, 
DonchianChannel, or OBV, es needed.  Channel Break-outs are also often 
called pivots.  We have some code for this, and will endeavor to 
document it and get it into TTR.

After any indicators are applied, as required, you'll then generate 
signals as I described in my prior email.

Regards,

   - Brian

On 03/29/2011 01:24 AM, Joshua Ulrich wrote:
> Hi Worik,
>
> There are 5 types of rules: filter rules, moving averages, support and
> resistance, channel break-outs, and on-balance volume averages.  TTR
> contains what you need for moving averages, channel break-outs
> (DonchianChannel) and on-balance volume (OBV).
>
> I coded filter rules in another language a few years ago, so I could
> help you write them in R.  I don't understand how the support and
> resistance rules differ from the channel break-outs, but that could be
> due to the time of day and my lack of sleep.  Regardless, I doubt they
> would be difficult to code.
>
> Best,
> --
> Joshua Ulrich  |  FOSS Trading: www.fosstrading.com
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Worik<worik.stanton at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> [Apologies if I have sent this multiple times.  I have been struggling with
>> SMTP sewrvers and I have not seen my message appear on the list]
>>
>> Friends
>>
>> I am trying to save myself some tedious work.
>>
>> I am processing a paper from  "The Journal Of Finance * Vol. LIV, No. 5
>>   October 1999" by Sullivan,  Timmerman and  White.  "Data-Snooping,
>> Technical Trading Rule Performance, and the Bootstrap"
>>
>> I am aiming to reproduce their results using the same  TA rules as they
>> used.
>>
>> They describe the rules they use in English and I am in the process of
>> trying to programme them into R.  But if some one has already done this it
>> would save me a pile of work.
>>
>> It would be nice to just grab some rules from the TTR package, but because
>> of the way STW describe the rules it is quite a lot of work to calculate
>> what parameters to use.
>>
>> So I am clutching at a straw here:  If anybody could point me in a better
>> direction than slogging through the English text and trying to match that
>> with the TTR docs I would be grateful
>>
>> cheers
>> Worik
>>
>> PS Here is an example of their text.  Not that it is bad, just quite a bit
>> of work....
>>
>>     A. Filter Rules
>> Filter rules are used in Alexander (1961) to assess the efficiency of stock
>> price movements. Fama and Blume (1966) explain the standard filter rule:
>> An x per cent filter is defined as follows: If the daily closing price of a
>> particular security moves up at least x per cent, buy and hold the se-
>> curity until its price moves down at least x per cent from a subsequent
>> high, at which time simultaneously sell and go short. The short position
>> is maintained until the daily closing price rises at least x per cent above
>> a subsequent low at which time one covers and buys. Moves less than x
>> per cent in either direction are ignored. (p. 227)
>> The first item of consideration is how to define subsequent lows and highs.
>> We will do this in two ways. As the above excerpt suggests, a subsequent
>> high is the highest closing price achieved while holding a particular long
>> position. Likewise, a subsequent low is the lowest closing price achieved
>> while holding a particular short position. Alternatively, a low (high) can
>> be
>> defined as the most recent closing price that is less (greater) than the e
>> previous closing prices. Next, we will expand the universe of filter rules
>> by
>> allowing a neutral position to be imposed. This is accomplished by liquidat-
>> ing a long position when the price decreases y percent from the previous
>> high, and covering a short position when the price increases y percent from
>> the previous low. Following BLL, we also consider holding a given long or
>> short position for a prespecified number of days, c, effectively ignoring
>> all
>> other signals generated during that time.