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Trading by Weekly Approval Rating
Alex DeBaere
posted Mar 23, 2014

I've just gotten started using Quantopian, and I love it so far. Just thought I'd try my hand at posting a short, simple algorithm that I managed to put together as I was learning to use all the features. The theory is that there is some correlation between the market and the current week's Presidential Approval Rating (statistics for President Obama available from Gallup). I hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship. The result is: if the approval rating is higher than 50% then buy shares, if the approval rating is lower than 50% then sell. After realizing this could be a pretty aggressive and drastic strategy, I only buy/sell half as many shares as possible.

As a first time user/poster, I know this won't be the most complicated or even interesting algorithm. This is exactly why I'd love to hear some feedback, advice, and suggestions to help me out. Also, I'd love to hear some other related ideas as well.

2 responses
Deleted User
Mar 24, 2014

Hey Alex, welcome to Quantopian! Thanks for sharing the idea! You may want to check out this NY Times article, which finds no correlation between presidential approval ratings and equity indices.

Alisa Deychman
Mar 24, 2014

Hi Alex,

If you're looking for atypical algorithms, here is an interesting list of strategies:

Cheers,
Alisa

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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.