2024R5

Round 4 Performance Breakdown & Round 5 Trader Behavior Analysis

Round 4 Results

⦁ Orchids: Still no arbitrage opportunities emerged

⦁ Coconuts & coupons: Generated 80k+ profit

⦁ Basket trading: Achieved 60k+ profit

⦁ Total PnL: Approximately 194k

⦁ Manual trading: Selected conservative bids of 956/984, resulting in 101k profit

⦁ Overall ranking: Dropped slightly to 42nd place

⦁ Note: Top performer now has more than double my PnL. They likely discovered superior coconut trading opportunities that I haven’t been able to identify despite extensive research.

Round 5 Trader Identification Insights

Key market participants identified:

1. Primary Market Makers:

⦁ Valentina and Vinnie establish prices for most products

⦁ Market demonstrates strong resilience – even large orders at specific timestamps see prices revert by the next timestamp

2. Retail Traders:

⦁ Ruby and Remy exhibit typical retail behavior:

   ⦁ Random trading directions

   ⦁ Consistently cross the book

3. Trading Behavior Analysis (See following figure for coconut/coupon breakdown):

⦁ Aggressive trades (buying above mid, selling below mid):

   ⦁ Dominant among R-family traders (retail segment)

⦁ Passive trades (buying below mid, selling above mid):

   ⦁ Characteristic of V-family (market makers)

⦁ Vinnie shows unique pattern with some aggressive selling, possibly indicating slightly lower fair value estimates than Valentina

4. Actionable Opportunity:

⦁ Raj exclusively trades coconuts

⦁ His trading direction shows strong correlation with coconut movements over next 40 steps

⦁ Implementation: Adjust coconut fair value based on Raj’s trades

⦁ Backtest results: ~10k additional profit

Interesting But Unexploited Observations

1. Rhianna’s Trading Patterns:

⦁ Coconut trades align almost perfectly with Vinnie’s (100% PNL correlation)

⦁ Matches “girlfriend” character backstory but unclear practical utility

2. Gift Basket Behavior:

⦁ Rhianna’s trades predict next-timestamp price movements

⦁ Challenge: Basket bid-ask spreads too wide for practical exploitation

⦁ Current status: Potential value not yet actionable

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