Using Artificial Market Models to Forecast Financial Time-Series

We discuss the theoretical machinery involved in predicting financial market movements using an artificial market model which has been trained on real financial data. This approach to market prediction - in particular, forecasting financial time-series by training a third-party or 'black box' game on the financial data itself -- was discussed by Johnson et al. in cond-mat/0105303 and cond-mat/0105258 and was based on some encouraging preliminary investigations of the dollar-yen exchange rate, various individual stocks, and stock market indices. However, the initial attempts lacked a clear formal methodology. Here we present a detailed methodology, using optimization techniques to build an estimate of the strategy distribution across the multi-trader population. In contrast to earlier attempts, we are able to present a systematic method for identifying 'pockets of predictability' in real-world markets. We find that as each pocket closes up, the black-box system needs to be 'reset' - which is equivalent to saying that the current probability estimates of the strategy allocation across the multi-trader population are no longer accurate. Instead, new probability estimates need to be obtained by iterative updating, until a new 'pocket of predictability' emerges and reliable prediction can resume.