Commodity Futures Skewness-Based Long-Short Monthly Strategy
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Quant Buffet native backtest IDEEdit and run Quant Buffet Python for Commodity Futures Skewness-Based Long-Short Monthly Strategy in the browser. Results update live with equity, drawdown, and metrics charts. Allowed: backtest.data, backtest.engine, backtest.metrics, numpy, pandas. Define ASSETS and make_on_day(prices). Shortcut: Ctrl+Enter. API docs →
Quant Buffet syntax cheat sheet (copy / insert)
Paste these fragments into the editor. The sandbox rejects QuantConnect, os, and network libraries.
from __future__ import annotations
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
from backtest.data import load_daily_prices
from backtest.engine import EngineConfig, PortfolioEngine
from backtest.metrics import compute_metricsASSETS = ["SPY", "QQQ", "TLT", "GLD", "BIL"]def make_on_day(prices: pd.DataFrame):
cols = [c for c in ASSETS if c in prices.columns]
sma = prices[cols].rolling(200, min_periods=200).mean()
state = {"last": None}
def on_day(engine: PortfolioEngine, dt: pd.Timestamp) -> None:
if sma.loc[dt].isna().all():
return
key = (dt.year, dt.month)
if state["last"] == key:
return
state["last"] = key
long = [
s for s in cols
if pd.notna(prices.at[dt, s]) and pd.notna(sma.at[dt, s])
and prices.at[dt, s] > sma.at[dt, s]
]
weights = {} if not long else {s: 1.0 / len(long) for s in long}
engine.set_target_weights(dt, weights)
ready = sma.dropna(how="all").index.min() if sma.notna().any().any() else None
return on_day, readyengine.set_target_weights(dt, {"SPY": 0.60, "BIL": 0.40})Live backtest performance
Export to your platform
Transform Quant Buffet lab code (ASSETS + make_on_day / PortfolioEngine) into native classes for a third-party IDE — then copy and paste.
# Generated from Quant Buffet → QuantConnect LEAN
# Strategy: Commodity Futures Skewness-Based Long-Short Monthly Strategy
# Detected pattern: Custom / hybrid
# Source uses Quant Buffet lab APIs (ASSETS + make_on_day / PortfolioEngine).
# Review fees, data, and risk before live trading — educational export only.
from AlgorithmImports import *
class QuantBuffetExport(QCAlgorithm):
def Initialize(self):
self.SetStartDate(2010, 1, 1)
self.SetCash(100000)
tickers = ["SPY", "TLT", "GLD", "BIL"]
self.symbols = []
for t in tickers:
if "-" in t: # crypto proxy e.g. BTC-USD
self.symbols.append(self.AddCrypto(t.replace("-USD", ""), Resolution.Daily).Symbol)
else:
self.symbols.append(self.AddEquity(t, Resolution.Daily).Symbol)
self.Schedule.On(
self.DateRules.MonthStart(self.symbols[0]),
self.TimeRules.AfterMarketOpen(self.symbols[0], 30),
self.Rebalance,
)
# Logic: Custom Quant Buffet logic — adapt the signal block to match your lab on_day().
def Rebalance(self):
# Pattern: custom — Custom Quant Buffet logic — adapt the signal block to match your lab on_day().
# Default: equal-weight. Port your make_on_day weights here via SetHoldings.
w = 1.0 / len(self.symbols) if self.symbols else 0.0
for symbol in self.symbols:
self.SetHoldings(symbol, w)
Exported code uses the platform’s native classes and libraries. Install dependencies in your third-party IDE, then run. Validate before live trading.
Academic paper
Commodities as Lotteries: Skewness and the Returns of Commodity Futures
Adrián Fernández-Pérez; Bart Frijns; Ana-Marı́a Fuertes; Joëlle Miffre
- NZAuckland University of Technology
- NLOpen University of the Netherlands
- ?Open University of the Netherlands - School of Management
- City, University of London
- ?Bayes Business School, City, University of London
- Audencia Business School
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2671165
Strategy in a nutshell
The investment universe consists of 27 futures contracts on commodities. Each month, investor calculates skewness (3rd moment of returns) from daily returns from data going 12 months into the past for all futures. Commodities are then sorted into quintiles and investor goes long quintile containing the commodities with the 20% lowest total skewness and short quintile containing the commodities with the 20% highest total skewness (over a ranking period of 12 months). The resultant portfolio is equally weighted and rebalanced each month.
Economic rationale
Academic studies explain skewness effect in all assets by investors are willing to pay a higher price, and to earn a lower expected return, on assets with lottery-like payoffs. A recent study shows that skewness affects commodity futures returns and documents that skewness is priced in different markets than the ones where retail investors typically trade. Hence, its findings suggest that the effect of skewness on asset returns is not merely a consequence of retail investor preferences. Rather this indicates that other groups of traders have these heterogeneous preferences.