Static vs Adaptive Strategies for Optimal Execution with Signals

Abstract: We compare optimal static and dynamic solutions in trade execution. An optimal trade execution problem is considered where a trader is looking at a short-term price predictive signal while trading. When the trader creates an instantaneous market impact, it is shown that transaction costs of optimal adaptive strategies are substantially lower than the corresponding costs of the optimal static strategy. In the same spirit, in the case of transient impact it is shown that strategies that observe the signal a finite number of times can dramatically reduce the transaction costs and improve the performance of the optimal static strategy.