Is Hedging Allowed at Quantopian?

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Is Hedging Allowed at Quantopian?

posted Feb 2, 2015

I am a newbie and I have a few basic questions:

1) Can I hold a buy trade and a sell trade at the same time for S&P, DowJones, and other trading instruments?
2) Can I have multiple buy trades with different stops losses and take profits?

2 responses

@Uncle B. Your trading options are based on what an account at InteractiveBrokers can provide. On top of that there are additional restrictions imposed by Quantopian.

Are you asking can you hold a long and short position in the same instrument? No. You would have to have two client accounts each connected to separate strategies to affect such a position. Otherwise such a "hedge" would just be selling your long or covering your short (reducing your open position). You can short securities, so you could take an short position in a similar instrument to hedge, provided the instrument offers enough shortable shares.

Or are you asking can you have an open buy long limit and an open sell short limit at the same time? Yes. But you'll have to manage those carefully. No OCA pass through is provided. As Quantopian only offers minutely granularity for execution examination you could easily be filled on bracketed orders depending on volatility during the minute your strategy is out of touch with the market. If you need true scaled entries or exits, in tight or volatile markets, you may want to trade your own ATS.

[These comments reflect my understanding of the Q's behavior.]

Thanks.

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The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.