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Applying Technical Trading Rules to Beat Long-Term Investing: Evidence from Asian Markets

Asia-Pacific Financial Markets volume 28, pages 587–611 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

We provide evidence that the use of technical trading rules provides traders the opportunity to generate profits from actively buying and selling individual stocks across Asian markets. We test the trading performance of three widely used technical trading strategies, the Arithmetic Moving Average, the Relative Strength Index, and the Stochastic Oscillator, as well as variations to each trading strategy. We compare the results of these trading rules to a long-term buy-and-hold strategy across 4822 stocks traded in 39 Asian countries. Our results, when applying a simple behavior intervention filter of only selling a position when a trade is profitable, show that these technical trading rules, on average, were able to outperform the buy-and-hold strategy for 66% of the stocks listed in our sample. Additionally, given any of the listed Asian stocks, we found that, on average, a trader could apply any technical trading strategy and have a greater than 50–50 chance of outperforming the buy-and hold strategy for that stock for 63% of all stocks.

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Notes

  1. Throughout our methodology, we assume that traders can only act upon a change in signal. This avoids over-accumulating or over-borrowing on long or short positions. Similar restrictions hold for the Relative Strength Index and the Stochastic Oscillator techniques.

  2. We also compare results from this mechanical approach by incorporating a simple behavioral filter to our trading rules, to provide human intervention before closing a trading position. We discuss below.

  3. The price ranges for some stocks may not trigger any “buy” signal from a trading rule to begin trading. So, not all 31 trading rules can be counted. While possible for any trading rule, it is more common for those trading rules with stricter filters on less volatile stocks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Madisonville, LA, 70447, USA

    Thomas S. Coe

  2. Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Avenue, Fairfield, CT, 06825, USA

    Kittipong Laosethakul

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  1. Thomas S. Coe
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  2. Kittipong Laosethakul
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Correspondence to Thomas S. Coe.

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Coe, T.S., Laosethakul, K. Applying Technical Trading Rules to Beat Long-Term Investing: Evidence from Asian Markets. Asia-Pac Financ Markets 28, 587–611 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10690-021-09337-5

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