Market Volatility, Illiquidity Can Be Quite Profitable for Bitcoin TradersIntroduction to “spreads”The cryptocurrency markets are often volatile and suffer from periods of limited liquidity. Combined, they increase the risk profile for Blockchain asset investors.
But with increased risk, the potential for reward should increase as well. In this post we explore one method professional traders use to handle volatility and liquidity issues and explore ways to profit from these inefficiencies.
Introducing mean-reversion strategiesVolatility is driven by uncertainty. Some strategies, however, profit from volatility and even illiquidity. At the same time these strategies help mitigate market inefficiencies and should be rewarded for that.
Mean-reversion is the assumption that a stock's price will tend to move toward its average price over time. In other words, deviations from the average price could be exploited for profit, based on the knowledge that the price should tend to revert to the mean in time.
A simple implementation of this strategy is to quote both a sell and a buy price, like a market maker. If the market is in fact mean reverting, then the strategy profits from the difference between the buy and sell price. The difference is also called the quoted spread.
Mean-reversion strategies trade the market as if the market oscillates around a fair price for an asset. The swings are driven by the uncertainty of other market participants or illiquidity at different market levels. Mean-reversion strategies bridge the gap between buyers and sellers and can expect to generate a profit from that.
This strategy is most effective in markets that are both high in volatility and are mean reverting. Volatility measures the size of the market’s swings. With high volatility, market swings are large and the mean-reversion strategy has a high probability of generating a profit. In markets with low volatility only small spreads are possible and the strategy is less profitable.
The best market scenario for mean-reversion is a sideways market with large volatility or market swings. This market scenario is damaging for trend-following strategies but profitable for market making or mean-reversion strategies.
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