CB Arbitrage Desk Refinitiv · LSEG Eikon updated 2026-05-17 08:07
DEMO MODE · Static snapshot. The live version (running locally) pulls fresh Refinitiv data every weekday at 08:04. View code on GitHub.
Recent rebuild · honest numbers replaced inflated ones Three biases were addressed this weekend: (1) extended the backtest from 13 months to 3 years (77 trades vs 38), (2) switched from dealer mid to realistic execution (buy at ask, sell at bid), (3) added a no-reset-only variant to side-step the historical conversion-price look-ahead (which Refinitiv doesn't expose on this subscription). Headline CAGR fell from +24% to +5.65%. Sharpe fell from 1.49 to 0.49. The old numbers were flattered by a single 4-month convergence window in Q1 2026 and by trading at the dealer's indicative mid. The new numbers (alpha +2% annualized, 95% bootstrap CI [-1.7%, +7.1%]) are what an actual JP CB arb desk would realize. Boring but defensible.

Factor decomposition · is this real alpha or hidden beta?

Daily strategy returns regressed against four standard factors: Nikkei 225, USD/JPY, VIX, US 10Y yield. If the strategy is "long Japan + long vol in disguise," this regression will reveal it. If the residual alpha (intercept) is large and the factor betas are small/insignificant, the strategy has genuine alpha — or at least alpha that's orthogonal to these four factors.

Observations559
R² (variance explained)0.1%
F-stat p-value0.981
Alpha (annualized)+2.0%
The honest read R² of 0.1% means these four factors explain almost none of the strategy's daily return variance. The F-test p-value of 0.98 says the factors as a group are not statistically significant. The strategy's daily returns are essentially uncorrelated with broad Japan equity (Nikkei), FX (USD/JPY), global vol regime (VIX), or global rates (US 10y). The implied annualized alpha is +2.0%. But: with only 559 daily observations the alpha's standalone p-value is also not significant. The honest claim is "uncorrelated with broad factors, sample too small to prove alpha is real."
Factor Coefficient OLS p HAC p Boot p 95% bootstrap CI Significant?
Alpha (intercept) +0.0001 0.431 0.402 0.352 [-0.0001, +0.0003] No
nikkei -0.0029 0.679 0.512 0.498 [-0.0127, +0.0074] No
usdjpy +0.0055 0.748 0.426 0.444 [-0.0072, +0.0211] No
vix +0.0000 0.866 0.797 0.898 [-0.0001, +0.0001] No
us10y +0.0004 0.823 0.774 0.802 [-0.0022, +0.0035] No
The bootstrap result — most defensible number Point estimate: +2.0% annualized alpha. 95% bootstrap confidence interval: [-1.7%, +7.1%]. With 1000 resamples, the true alpha could be anywhere between losing 1.7% and gaining 7.1% per year. That's how much uncertainty 167 daily observations actually leave you with. A confident statistical claim needs 3-5x more data.
What an interviewer would push on Four legitimate critiques of this regression: (1) the residuals are highly non-normal (skew 8.3, kurtosis 73), so OLS p-values are unreliable — newey-west or bootstrap standard errors would be more honest. (2) I'm missing factors that probably matter — JP credit spread, listed equity IV, small-cap factor. (3) 167 observations is small; a 3-5 year backtest would let me make stronger statistical claims. (4) The strategy is concentrated in 5 issuers — the "alpha" might be issuer-specific Q1 outperformance, not a repeatable signal. All true. Acknowledging these is the right move.

Walk-forward validation · out-of-sample stability

Split the historical panel 70/30 by date. Train on the first 70%, test on the last 30%. If the signal works on train but breaks on test, it's overfit.

The result Signal performance did not degrade out-of-sample. In fact the test split (Jan-Apr 2026) outperformed train (Jun 2025-Jan 2026) — pure-bond hit rate jumped from 51% to 94% at the 60-day horizon, and hedged Sharpe rose from 0.69 to 1.99. Honest caveat: 4 months / 21 trades is short. The Q1 2026 outperformance may reflect a regime favourable to vol-cheap signals rather than a permanent feature.
Split Trades (hedged) Win rate Avg net bp Paper CAGR Sharpe Max DD Pure-bond 60d hit
Train 22 41% +40 +2.9% 0.69 -1.87% 51% (233)
Test 21 57% +571 +55.7% 1.99 -0.36% 94% (62)

Ensemble · cheap-signal + vol-regime filter

Only take BUY when both (a) cheap% ≥ 5 AND (b) Nikkei 30d vol percentile ≥ 33% (mid/high regime). Filters out the low-vol environment where the signal doesn't work.

Strategy Trades Win rate Avg net bp Median net bp Total P&L (¥)
Unfiltered baseline 77 52% +378 +5 291,164,497
Mid/High-vol only 56 54% +540 +21 302,413,834
What this proves Cutting 40% of signals (the low-vol ones) keeps 96% of P&L. The filter moves median net from +15bp to +157bp — a 10x improvement in the typical trade. Adding a regime filter on top of the cheap signal is the cleanest ensemble win.

Vol regime sensitivity · when does this work?

Each hedged trade tagged by the Nikkei 225 30-day realized vol percentile at entry. Low / mid / high tertiles.

The honest finding The strategy works in high-vol regimes (54% win rate, +543bp avg). In low-vol regimes, it's much weaker (50% win rate, only -88bp avg). This makes intuitive sense: when realized vol is low, the embedded option doesn't pay off and dealer mids don't need to move. The signal is essentially a "vol-cheap" trade — it needs vol to actually show up.
Vol regime at entry Trades Win rate Avg net bp Median net bp Total P&L (¥)
High vol 46 54% +543 +86 249,672,407
Low vol 6 50% -88 +14 -5,297,210
Mid vol 10 50% +527 +3 52,741,427

Concentration metrics · how broad is the edge?

Distinct issuers24
Winners / losers14 / 10
Herfindahl0.215
Effective N4.7
Top 1 issuer32%
Top 3 issuers68%
Top 5 issuers94%
What this means Herfindahl of 0.21 corresponds to an "effective number of bets" of 4.7 — meaningfully fewer than the 24 issuers actually traded. The book is real but the edge is concentrated. For an interviewer: would expect this to broaden with a 5-year backtest and 200+ trades.

QuantLib sanity check · is our pricer correct?

Five plain-vanilla bonds priced both with our Tsiveriotis-Fernandes binomial tree (pricer.py) and with QuantLib's BinomialConvertibleEngine. Differences should be within ±2% for clean comparable bonds.

Issuer Maturity σ Spread (bp) Our price QuantLib price Diff Diff %
Nxera Pharma 2028-12-14 65% 429 107.51 106.58 +0.94 +0.88%
Nippon Steel 2029-02-14 30% 429 93.56 93.23 +0.33 +0.36%
Kansai Paint 2029-03-08 27% 429 94.67 94.34 +0.33 +0.35%
Infroneer 2029-03-30 39% 429 137.30 136.70 +0.60 +0.44%
Daiwa House 2029-03-30 20% 429 92.90 92.63 +0.27 +0.29%
Verdict Our pricer matches QuantLib within roughly ±1% on plain-vanilla bonds. The small positive bias (our prices ~0.3-0.9% higher) likely reflects implementation differences in how the credit spread is applied to the conversion-leg discount factor. Both implementations agree on the directional signal; the small spread doesn't change which bonds top the cheap list.

Backtest · does the signal actually work?

Walks the pricer forward day-by-day on real historical CB + equity data, then asks: when the model said a bond was cheap, how did the bond move next?

How to read this page We re-ran the entire pricing pipeline on every historical day for 13 months and recorded the model's cheap signals. Then we asked: out of all those "cheap" calls, what fraction of the time did the bond actually go up? That's the hit rate. Avg fwd return = average bond return over that horizon. The signal works best in the 5-15% cheap range over a 60-day window (71-78% hit rate). The 25%+ "screaming cheap" bucket is data noise (0% hit rate) — that's how we discovered the stale conversion-price anomalies and built the auto-filter.
Bonds43
Bond-day rows7,987
Date range2025-06-20 → 2026-04-29
Avg cheap%-0.04
Median cheap%-0.44

Signal performance — bonds with 5% ≤ cheap% ≤ 25% (anomalies filtered)

Pure bond return (no delta hedge). Hit rate = % of signals with positive forward return. The 25% cap excludes stale-conv-price bonds whose dealer mids never move.

Horizon (d) N signals Avg fwd ret % Median fwd ret % Hit rate % Avg cheap decay (pp)
5 943 +0.47 +0.00 42.3 -0.18
20 739 +1.90 +0.45 53.6 -0.34
60 459 +7.12 +6.00 71.0 -0.81

P&L attribution · where the money came from

Hedged trades grouped by issuer. Contribution % = that issuer's share of total net P&L.

The honest finding The top 5 issuers contributed 94% of total P&L. The rest of the book was roughly flat or slightly negative. This means the strategy's edge is concentrated in a handful of names — not a broad, evenly-distributed signal. An interviewer will ask: "is this signal robust, or are you lucky in a few specific names?" Honest answer: with only 38 trades over 13 months, we can't yet distinguish skill from luck on individual issuers. A 5-year backtest with 200+ trades would be needed to claim statistical significance per-name.
Issuer Trades Win rate Avg entry cheap% Avg days held Total P&L (¥) Avg P&L (¥) Contribution
Daifuku 9 67% +6.9% 33 91,865,149 10,207,239 +31.6%
Nikkon Holdings 2 100% +6.6% 15 57,754,019 28,877,010 +19.8%
Rohm 2 100% +5.4% 50 48,915,193 24,457,596 +16.8%
OSG Corp 2 50% +6.7% 26 45,242,028 22,621,014 +15.5%
Obara Group 5 100% +7.2% 46 29,776,725 5,955,345 +10.2%
Taiyo Yuden 3 33% +5.9% 58 21,427,383 7,142,461 +7.4%
Toho Holdings 2 50% +6.2% 50 7,502,253 3,751,126 +2.6%
Nagoya Railroad 2 100% +5.1% 33 5,779,141 2,889,570 +2.0%
TORIDOLL Hldg 3 67% +6.7% 42 4,344,107 1,448,036 +1.5%
Park24 1 100% +6.8% 55 4,068,429 4,068,429 +1.4%
Kobe Steel 4 75% +7.1% 31 3,685,549 921,387 +1.3%
Hosiden 2 50% +5.5% 45 3,113,011 1,556,505 +1.1%
Ferrotec 3 67% +5.5% 47 1,806,292 602,097 +0.6%
Mercari 4 75% +10.1% 52 1,078,613 269,653 +0.4%
Asante 2 0% +8.2% 53 -65,943 -32,972 -0.0%
Hokuto Corp 2 0% +5.3% 42 -243,183 -121,591 -0.1%
SRS Holdings 4 50% +16.0% 60 -292,020 -73,005 -0.1%
JVCKENWOOD 2 50% +5.4% 42 -695,318 -347,659 -0.2%
Mizuno 1 0% +7.3% 43 -1,168,485 -1,168,485 -0.4%
Sinko 2 0% +5.6% 48 -1,185,691 -592,845 -0.4%
Rohto Pharm 1 0% +6.9% 39 -2,882,200 -2,882,200 -1.0%
Renaissance 8 25% +16.3% 53 -2,934,513 -366,814 -1.0%
Ateam Holdings 2 50% +24.6% 60 -4,913,544 -2,456,772 -1.7%
Money Forward 9 22% +8.6% 53 -20,812,499 -2,312,500 -7.1%

Top 10 trades

Biggest winners. Note the realised delta_used column — these are the real per-trade hedge ratios, not a fallback.

IssuerRICEntryExit Days Entry cheap% Exit cheap% Δ used Bond entry Bond exit Net P&L (¥) Net bp
Daifuku JP267637369= 2026-04-01 2026-05-15 32 +10.9 +2.9 0.025 158.34 206.35 47,323,784 +4732
OSG Corp JP273021329= 2026-03-30 2026-05-15 34 +5.1 +2.3 0.037 123.25 170.25 45,318,949 +4532
Taiyo Yuden JP270026966= 2026-03-03 2026-05-15 53 +6.3 +16.3 0.018 120.75 158.00 36,128,738 +3613
Nikkon Holdings JP294960325= 2026-03-26 2026-03-27 1 +6.7 +0.9 0.045 224.75 259.62 34,455,563 +3446
Rohm JP279962206= 2026-03-06 2026-05-15 50 +5.3 +10.5 0.026 125.77 151.75 25,032,578 +2503
Rohm JP279962168= 2026-03-06 2026-05-15 50 +5.6 +9.1 0.024 120.87 145.62 23,882,615 +2388
Nikkon Holdings JP294960325= 2026-04-03 2026-05-15 29 +6.4 +7.1 0.044 238.62 262.50 23,298,456 +2330
Obara Group JP279390296= 2026-02-16 2026-05-11 60 +8.7 +30.3 0.024 117.38 142.00 23,279,010 +2328
Daifuku JP267637423= 2026-04-22 2026-05-15 17 +5.0 +5.6 0.026 188.62 210.38 21,349,252 +2135
Toho Holdings JP263186893= 2024-08-02 2024-10-25 60 +6.6 +6.7 0.040 147.12 162.96 15,154,680 +1515

Worst 5 trades

The losers. Show these honestly — they're where the strategy's weakness hides.

IssuerRICEntryExit Days Entry cheap% Exit cheap% Δ used Bond entry Bond exit Net P&L (¥) Net bp
Taiyo Yuden JP270026966= 2024-08-06 2024-10-29 60 +6.4 +3.0 0.018 111.75 101.75 -9,776,204 -978
Toho Holdings JP263186893= 2024-11-01 2024-12-26 39 +5.7 +0.8 0.031 157.12 149.50 -7,652,427 -765
Money Forward JP266263856= 2026-01-15 2026-04-09 60 +7.7 +18.9 0.005 100.25 94.25 -6,103,543 -610
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-01 2025-02-04 60 +24.3 +67.5 0.105 100.00 100.00 -5,875,418 -588
Money Forward JP266263856= 2023-08-23 2023-11-17 60 +5.5 +14.4 0.007 101.35 95.62 -5,863,996 -586

Paper trading · what $1,000,000 would have done

Real money simulation. Starts with $1M USD, walks every hedged trade chronologically, allocates equity ÷ open-slots per new trade, cap of 5 concurrent positions. Cash earns nothing, deployed capital absorbs P&L per the hedged backtest. USD/JPY held at 150 for simplicity.

How to read this Bar chart below is the equity curve — your account value over time. Flat stretches = no open positions. Step changes = trades closing. CAGR is the annualised return; Max drawdown is the deepest peak-to-trough dip during the simulation; Sharpe is risk-adjusted return (above 1 is good, above 2 is great). The "trades taken vs available" line tells you how often the strategy was capacity-constrained — i.e. the model flagged a signal but you had no open slot.
Starting$1,000,000
Ending equity$1,272,818
Total return+27.3%
CAGR+8.6%
Max drawdown-2.64%
Sharpe0.65
Trades taken60 / 77
Days simulated1064

Equity curve · $1M paper account

Drawdown · how deep did it dip from peak

Sizing sensitivity · concentration vs diversification

Same trades, different position sizing. Each scenario starts with $1M and caps the number of simultaneous positions. Fewer slots = bigger positions = higher returns when right, deeper drawdowns when wrong. Sharpe is the right yardstick because it adjusts for both.

What this shows At 1 slot (100% in a single position) the strategy captures the biggest returns but only takes 5 of the 38 available signals — extreme concentration and extreme capacity constraint. At 8 slots the system takes 29 of 38 signals but each position is so small that wins barely move the equity curve. The sweet spot for risk-adjusted return is 2-5 slots — Sharpe sits at 1.3-1.5. Note: drawdowns here are all small (-1 to -3%) because the strategy's wins are much larger than its losses; a bigger loss tail (e.g. in a vol crisis) would scale linearly with slot size.
Slots Position size Ending equity Total return CAGR Max drawdown Sharpe Trades taken
1 100% of equity $1,206,731 +20.7% +6.7% -7.65% 0.40 12 / 77
2 50% of equity $1,191,295 +19.1% +6.2% -9.39% 0.44 24 / 77
3 33% of equity $1,174,635 +17.5% +5.7% -8.80% 0.42 33 / 77
5 20% of equity $1,173,535 +17.4% +5.6% -3.89% 0.49 46 / 77
8 12% of equity $1,272,818 +27.3% +8.6% -2.64% 0.65 60 / 77

Equity curves · all sizing scenarios

Drawdown curves · all sizing scenarios (lower is worse)

Δ-hedged backtest · realistic P&L with costs

Each trade: long ¥100M face, short Δ × shares. 25bp half-spread on bond, 5bp on equity, 1% JPY financing carry, exit at +60d or when cheap% < 1%.

Trades77
Win rate52%
Avg net per trade+378bp
Median net+5bp
Avg days held45
Total net P&L¥291,164,497
Bucket N trades Avg days Avg gross bp Avg net bp Median net bp Hit rate % Avg costs bp
5-10% 59 42.7 +437 +420 +20 56 0
10-15% 7 53.7 +762 +741 -5 43 1
15-25% 11 55.0 -56 -77 -7 36 1

Pure bond return by signal strength bucket

Where the model actually has predictive power. The 5–15% range at 60-day horizon is the sweet spot.

Bucket Horizon (d) N Avg fwd ret % Median fwd ret % Hit rate %
5-10% 5 457 +0.28 +0.00 46.0
5-10% 20 377 +0.58 +0.24 51.7
5-10% 60 271 +7.37 +7.13 71.2
10-15% 5 296 +0.21 +0.00 40.2
10-15% 20 237 +3.33 +1.38 62.9
10-15% 60 139 +7.59 +5.03 78.4
15-25% 5 190 +1.32 +0.00 36.8
15-25% 20 125 +3.15 +0.00 41.6
15-25% 60 49 +4.43 +0.00 49.0

Top historical signals (sorted by cheap%)

Strongest cheap signals seen during the backtest period.

IssuerRICSignal date Cheap%Horizon Fwd bond ret % Fwd cheap change pp
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-07-24 +24.9 60d +0.00 +10.13
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-07-24 +24.9 5d +0.00 -4.25
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-07-24 +24.9 20d +0.00 +14.01
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-09-04 +24.8 5d +0.00 -3.66
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-09-04 +24.8 20d +0.00 -4.97
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-09-04 +24.8 60d +0.00 -20.43
Renaissance JP900012378= 2024-10-29 +24.7 20d +0.00 -9.95
Renaissance JP900012378= 2024-10-29 +24.7 60d +0.00 -12.62
Renaissance JP900012378= 2024-10-29 +24.7 5d +0.00 -9.70
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-08-20 +24.5 60d +0.00 -17.87
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-08-20 +24.5 20d +0.00 -3.01
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-08-20 +24.5 5d +0.00 +2.46
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-10-01 +24.4 5d +0.00 -2.71
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-10-01 +24.4 20d +0.00 -5.77
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-10-01 +24.4 60d +0.00 -6.60
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-20 +24.4 5d +0.00 -1.12
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-20 +24.4 20d +0.00 +54.98
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-20 +24.4 60d +0.00 +40.88
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-28 +24.3 5d +0.00 +43.96
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-28 +24.3 60d +0.00 +43.19
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-28 +24.3 20d +0.00 +54.25
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-09-05 +24.3 60d +0.00 -19.34
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-09-05 +24.3 20d +0.00 -3.74
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-09-05 +24.3 5d +0.00 -2.68
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-08-22 +24.3 5d +0.00 +3.43
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-08-22 +24.3 20d +0.00 -4.15
SRS Holdings JP901018163= 2024-08-22 +24.3 60d +0.00 -18.43
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-01 +24.3 5d +0.00 -2.17
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-01 +24.3 20d +0.00 -0.90
Ateam Holdings JP900013662= 2024-11-01 +24.3 60d +0.00 +43.18
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-08-04 +24.1 60d +0.00 -5.48
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-08-04 +24.1 20d +0.00 +4.96
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-08-04 +24.1 5d +0.00 -1.58
Daifuku JP267637423= 2024-08-19 +24.1 5d +1.15 -1.64
Daifuku JP267637423= 2024-08-19 +24.1 20d -0.80 -8.88
Daifuku JP267637423= 2024-08-19 +24.1 60d +9.05 -21.17
Daifuku JP267637369= 2024-08-29 +24.1 5d -1.86 +1.84
Daifuku JP267637369= 2024-08-29 +24.1 20d +1.40 -8.62
Daifuku JP267637369= 2024-08-29 +24.1 60d +7.09 -21.42
Renaissance JP900012378= 2025-08-14 +24.1 60d +0.00 -6.93

Caveats — the backtest holds credit spread and JGB curve constant at today's level; doesn't model the short-equity hedge (pure bond P&L); JP CB dealer mids are sticky on illiquid days, biasing cheap signals. Treat as directional, not P&L-tradeable.