currencies, equities · Global · ETFs, futures · Intraday Free

Payroll News Timing in FX

Academic paper

Paper linkhttps://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3983210

Strategy in a nutshell

The investment universe includes FX futures for the euro (Deutsche mark before euro), British pound, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, and New Zealand dollar. Data sources include speculator FX exposures from the CFTC’s Commitments of Traders (COT) reports, bid-ask spreads from futures and the OTC market (via Refinitiv Tick History and Eikon), and futures margin data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

First, the long and short open interest in U.S. dollars is evaluated for each currency futures contract for the speculator investor type. The daily net open interest is defined as long minus short positions. FX exposure of speculators for each currency is calculated by dividing its net open interest by the sum of absolute net open interests across all currencies. Portfolio weights are equal to these FX exposures.

On U.S. payroll announcement days, the strategy mimics speculator FX exposure by investing in currency futures using 10-day lagged portfolio weights. Positions are opened five minutes before the announcements and closed one hour after release.

The FX target portfolio is composed of (100−α)%(100-\alpha)\%(100−α)% risky assets and α%\alpha\%α% cash holdings (between 5% and 20%), to meet futures margin requirements. The remainder is invested in risky assets such as the S&P 500 total return index, Bank of America U.S. corporate bond total return index, or JP Morgan aggregate commodity total return index. Results are presented for a strategy investing in the S&P 500 with 20% cash, achieving a Sharpe ratio gain of 0.39 relative to a strategy that ignores payroll announcements.

Economic rationale

The strategy leverages the informational content of speculators’ FX portfolio exposures, which contain predictive signals about upcoming payroll announcements. This predictive power persists due to long-lived information in FX positions, driven by timing and stealth motives:

Patience in Execution: Speculators may delay trades to avoid noise trading or take advantage of market liquidity.

Access to Private Information: Some speculators possess information unavailable to other market participants.

By mimicking informed speculators’ FX portfolio exposures, investors can capture these signals. FX exposures are measured as the net position of long and short open interests in U.S. dollars and rescaled so that portfolio weights sum to unity across different futures, reflecting the relative allocation of informed market activity.

Entry & exit

Entry

On each month, make_on_day sets target weights for GLD, SLV, DBC, GSG, USO, UNG, DBA. Read engine.set_target_weights in the lab code for the exact signal.

Exit

A name is exited when its target weight is set to 0 (or the whole dict is empty = cash). Fills use 5 bps commission and 2 bps slippage.

Market data required

Needs at least 60 adjusted daily closes on GLD, SLV, DBC, GSG, USO, UNG (+1 more) before the first signal is ready. ETF columns print on exchange sessions only. The lab loads Yahoo Finance via backtest.data.load_daily_prices.

Symbols

GLD, SLV, DBC, GSG, USO, UNG, DBA

Frequency

Intraday · Daily adjusted close; signals rebalance on the month change (last available session)

History needed

≥ 60 trading days per symbol (about 3 months), plus a few extra bars so the first signal can fire.

Fields

Adjusted close (Yahoo auto_adjust)
Session date index

Credentials

None for paper and the onsite lab
Broker or exchange API keys only for live orders

APIs & providers

Quant Buffet Data API

The lab calls load_daily_prices for the ASSETS panel of adjusted closes, then caches CSV so backtests replay the same series.

Provider: backtest.data.load_daily_prices
Auth: None for paper / sandbox backtests
Endpoints: load_daily_prices(ASSETS, start="2000-01-01")

API / docs → /en/docs/data-api

Yahoo Finance via yfinance

US equities and ETFs, adjusted OHLCV, free for research (rate limits apply).

Provider: yfinance → Yahoo Finance
Auth: None for public history
Endpoints: Ticker.history / yf.download(auto_adjust=True)

API / docs → github.com/ranaroussi/yfinance

Onsite backtest IDE

Quant Buffet native backtest IDE

Edit and run Quant Buffet Python for Payroll News Timing in FX 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 →

IDE · 43 lines

"""
Quant Buffet interactive lab — payroll-news-timing-in-fx
Allowed: backtest.data / backtest.engine / backtest.metrics, numpy, pandas.
Required: a module-level ASSETS list, and def make_on_day(prices) returning (on_day, ready)
"""
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_metrics

ASSETS = ['GLD', 'SLV', 'DBC', 'GSG', 'USO', 'UNG', 'DBA']
REBALANCE_ONCE = False

def make_on_day(prices: pd.DataFrame):
    cols = [c for c in ASSETS if c in prices.columns]
    state = {"last": None, "done": False}

    def on_day(engine: PortfolioEngine, dt: pd.Timestamp) -> None:
        available = [s for s in cols if pd.notna(prices.at[dt, s])]
        if not available:
            return
        if REBALANCE_ONCE:
            if state["done"]:
                return
            state["done"] = True
            engine.set_target_weights(dt, {s: 1.0 / len(available) for s in available})
            return
        key = (dt.year, dt.month)
        if state["last"] == key:
            return
        state["last"] = key
        engine.set_target_weights(dt, {s: 1.0 / len(available) for s in available})

    counts = prices[cols].notna().sum(axis=1)
    need = max(1, len(cols) // 2)
    eligible = counts[counts >= need]
    ready = eligible.index.min() if not eligible.empty else None
    return on_day, ready

"""
Quant Buffet interactive lab — payroll-news-timing-in-fx
Allowed: backtest.data / backtest.engine / backtest.metrics, numpy, pandas.
Required: a module-level ASSETS list, and def make_on_day(prices) returning (on_day, ready)
"""
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_metrics

ASSETS = ['GLD', 'SLV', 'DBC', 'GSG', 'USO', 'UNG', 'DBA']
REBALANCE_ONCE = False

def make_on_day(prices: pd.DataFrame):
    cols = [c for c in ASSETS if c in prices.columns]
    state = {"last": None, "done": False}

def on_day(engine: PortfolioEngine, dt: pd.Timestamp) -> None:
        available = [s for s in cols if pd.notna(prices.at[dt, s])]
        if not available:
            return
        if REBALANCE_ONCE:
            if state["done"]:
                return
            state["done"] = True
            engine.set_target_weights(dt, {s: 1.0 / len(available) for s in available})
            return
        key = (dt.year, dt.month)
        if state["last"] == key:
            return
        state["last"] = key
        engine.set_target_weights(dt, {s: 1.0 / len(available) for s in available})

counts = prices[cols].notna().sum(axis=1)
    need = max(1, len(cols) // 2)
    eligible = counts[counts >= need]
    ready = eligible.index.min() if not eligible.empty else None
    return on_day, ready

Quant Buffet syntax cheat sheet (copy / insert)

Paste these fragments into the editor. The sandbox rejects QuantConnect, os, and network libraries.

Required imports

Only these libraries are allowed in the sandbox.

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_metrics

ASSETS list (whitelisted ETFs)

Module-level list. Tickers must be in the Quant Buffet whitelist.

ASSETS = ["SPY", "QQQ", "TLT", "GLD", "BIL"]

make_on_day contract

Must return (on_day, ready). on_day calls engine.set_target_weights.

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, ready

Set target weights

Weights should sum to about 1.0. Empty dict = 100% cash.

engine.set_target_weights(dt, {"SPY": 0.60, "BIL": 0.40})

Live backtest performance

CAGR

-0.48%

Sharpe

0.07

Max DD

-80.40%

Vol

18.94%

Sortino

0.11

Beta

0.34

Up days

32%

Run the backtest to populate charts.

Order records

Run the backtest to load every order fill alongside 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.

Target platform

Run in: QuantConnect Cloud or LEAN CLI · QCAlgorithm with Equity securities and monthly rebalance.

Detected pattern: Custom / hybridAssets: GLD, SLV, DBC, GSG, USO, UNG, DBA

# Generated from Quant Buffet → QuantConnect LEAN
# Strategy: Payroll News Timing in FX
# 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 = ["GLD", "SLV", "DBC", "GSG", "USO", "UNG", "DBA"]
        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.