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Leverage on individual positions
Biarys Saktaganov
posted Jan 7, 2018
Seeking Help Asset Allocation

Hello,

*This is my first post and I am new to Quantopian

I have been trying to find a way to add leverage to individual positions? Let's say, I want to invest 1% of a portfolio into a stock that requires 50% margin.

It seems to me that using order_target_percent(stock, 2) does not fully mimic what I am trying to do, especially when I want to invest in multiple stocks.

Google searches didn't help.

One way I thought of solving this problem is by calculating dollar value of 1% of the portfolio and multiplying this by 2, then order_value(stock, value). But this is an equivalent of investing 2%.

I would like to know what you guys think. Any ideas?

Thank you

4 responses
Jamie Veitch (Azure Hawk)
Jan 8, 2018

order_target_percent(stock, 2) would invest 200% of your portfolio into that position, if you want to invest 1% or similar do order_target_percent(stock, 0.01). I may not have understood your question though.

Biarys Saktaganov
Jan 8, 2018

Hi Quant,
I'd like to invest 1% of my portfolio on margin. Normally I trade CFDs, which have leverage 1:10. The problem with order_target_percent(stock, 2) is that it invests 200% of my portfolio. Let's say I have 1000$ in my portfolio and I want to buy a stock trading at 10$, in this case I can buy 100 stocks. order_target_percent(stock, 2) will allocate 200% of my portfolio, giving me 200 stocks or 50% margin. The problem is that in reality I will buy 100 stocks with 50% margin. Is there a way to do it?

Jamie Veitch (Azure Hawk)
Jan 8, 2018

I'm not entirely sure that you can do margin trading on Quantopian, (we're operating on equities not CFD's) so I don't know if what you're asking is possible

Biarys Saktaganov
Jan 8, 2018

Ok, but is it possible to backtest it? Also, IB provides margin on some stocks, so I'd say it should be possible.

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