Quantifying the Risk-Return Tradeoff in Forecasting

Average forecast accuracy is not the same as forecast reliability. I treat forecast loss differentials relative to a benchmark as a return series. I then evaluate these returns using risk-adjusted performance measures from finance, including the Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, Omega ratio, and drawdown

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

RED-2400: A Public Benchmark of Algorithmically-Rejected Trading Events with Outcome Labels

RED-2400 is a public benchmark of algorithmically-rejected trading events from a live Solana decentralized-exchange filter stack. I logged the data continuously between 2026-04-10 and 2026-05-02. The benchmark contains 6,659 rejection events linked to 169,122 post-rejection price and liquidity obser

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Replication-Consistent Liquidity Forecasting for Derivatives -- Forward Funding Sensitivities and a Liquidity Valuation Adjustment for Settlement Lags

We study cash-flow forecasting for derivatives used in liquidity management and clarify its relation to risk-neutral valuation and replication. While it is well known that expectations under different measures (e.g., $\mathbb{P}$ vs. $\mathbb{Q}$) can yield different undiscounted cash-flows, further

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Resolution-Aware Perpetual Futures on Binary Prediction Markets: An Empirical Risk-Design Framework Using Polymarket Data

We develop and counterfactually evaluate a resolution-aware risk-design framework (PIRAP) for perpetual futures whose underlying tracks a single binary prediction-market probability through resolution. The framework specifies six components: an index estimator combining mid-price, depth-weighted mid

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

SBCA: Cross-Modal BERT-driven Actor-Critic for Multi-Asset Portfolio Optimization

Portfolio optimization is constrained by linear assumptions and insufficient integration of multi-modal information in traditional models. This paper proposes a cross-modal BERT-driven Actor-Critic framework SBCA for multi-asset portfolio optimization to address the deficiencies of existing deep rei

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Single-Period Portfolio Selection via Information Projection

We study the single-period portfolio selection problem under Constant Relative Risk-Aversion (CRRA) utility through the information-theoretic lens. Assuming only that the market payoff vector has finite support, we show that the Certainty-Equivalent (CE) growth rate under CRRA utility can be decompo

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

SNAPO: Smooth Neural Adjoint Policy Optimization for Optimal Control via Differentiable Simulation

Many real-world problems require sequential decisions under uncertainty: when to inject or withdraw gas from storage, how to rebalance a pension portfolio each month, what temperature profile to run through a pharmaceutical reactor chain. Dynamic programming solves small instances exactly but scales

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Statistical Model Checking of the Keynes+Schumpeter Model: A Transient Sensitivity Analysis of a Macroeconomic ABM

Agent-based models (ABMs) are increasingly used in macroeconomics, but their analysis still often relies on ad hoc Monte Carlo campaigns with heterogeneous statistical effort across parameter settings. We show how statistical model checking (SMC), implemented through MultiVeStA, can provide a princi

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Statistics of a multi-factor function from its Fourier transform

For a phenomenon $\boldsymbol{f}$ that is a function of $n$ factors, defined on a finite abelian group $G$, we derive its population statistics solely from its Fourier transform $\hat{\boldsymbol{f}}$. Our main result is an \textit{$m$-Coefficient/Index Annihilation Theorem}: the $m$th moment of $\b

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Structural Limits of OHLCV-Based Intraday Signals in MNQ Futures: A Systematic Falsification Study

This paper tests whether intraday momentum signals derived from open-high-low-close-volume (OHLCV) data produce a statistically significant trading edge in Micro E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures (MNQ) under realistic execution constraints. Using 947 trading days of five-minute data (2021-2025), fourteen si

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Synthetic American Option Pricing via Jump-HMM-Driven Heston Implied Volatility

Generating realistic synthetic option prices requires implied volatility as an input, yet implied volatility is itself derived from observed option prices, creating a circular dependency that limits synthetic data for machine-learning and risk-analysis applications. We break this circularity with a

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

The Engineering of Skew: A Path-Dependent Framework for Asymmetric Volatility Management

Volatility is the language in which finance often describes risk, but it is not the language in which institutions experience risk. Allocators live through drawdowns, liquidity needs, spending rules, rebalance decisions, board oversight, and the interval between a prior high-water mark and full reco

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

The Payment Heterogeneity Index: An Integrated Unsupervised Framework for High-Volume Procurement Oversight and Decision Support

Public procurement is vulnerable to error, fraud and corruption, yet high transaction volumes overwhelm oversight. While research often focuses on tender-stage anomalies, post-award payments remain underexplored. Since labelled datasets are rare and existing methods such as Benford’s Law face restri

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

The Value of Information: A Puzzle

We show that under mild assumptions, the total value of information to informed traders in the market can be measured by the covariance between price changes and order flow. This covariance captures noise trader losses, which equal informed trader gains when market making is competitive. We estimate

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Vector-Quantized Discrete Latent Factors Meet Financial Price Dynamics

We introduce a novel approach to modeling financial price dynamics using vector-quantized discrete latent factors. Our method achieves improved performance in predicting stock movements and volatility.

May 1, 2026 · 1 min · thequant.space

Visibility graphs can make money in financial markets

Traditional technical analysis indicators, although widely used by market participants, are often not sufficiently effective. We propose the Visibility Graphs Relative Strength Index (VGRSI), based on backward visibility relations in the price of a financial instrument. Rescaled to the 0–100 range,

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

What Can Go Wrong During Caplet Stripping ?

We study exact and near exact extraction of caplet volatilities from market cap quotes and identify why some common choices produce extreme oscillations or negative vols. Interpolation scheme and node placement are shown to be the primary drivers of instability, which can be amplified by isolated ba

May 1, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

A Note on the Generalized Cape Cod Reserving Method

Claims reserving is one of the most important actuarial tasks in non-life insurance modeling. There are several popular methods to perform claims reserving such as the chain-ladder (CL), the Bornhuetter–Ferguson (BF) or the generalized Cape Cod (GCC) methods. These methods have originally been intr

April 30, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Data-Driven Stochastic Optimal Control for Intraday Electricity Trading by Renewable Producers

The rapid growth of weather-dependent renewable generation increases price volatility and imbalance penalty risk in power markets, creating the need for advanced quantitative trading strategies. We develop a data-driven continuous-time stochastic optimal control framework for intraday electricity tr

April 30, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space

Distributionally Robust Insurance under Bregman-Wasserstein Divergence

This paper investigates two optimal insurance contracting problems under distributional uncertainty from the perspective of a potential policyholder, utilizing a Bregman-Wasserstein (BW) ball to characterize the ambiguity set of loss distributions. Unlike the $p$-Wasserstein distance, BW divergence

April 30, 2026 · 2 min · thequant.space