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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Souza, Lucas A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.24621
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author Souza, Lucas A.
author_facet Souza, Lucas A.
contents We study short-horizon forecasting in financial time series under strict causal constraints, treating the market as a non-stationary stochastic system in which any predictive observable must be computable online from information available up to the decision time. Rather than proposing a machine-learning predictor or a direct price-forecast model, we focus on \emph{constructing} an interpretable causal signal from heterogeneous micro-features that encode complementary aspects of the dynamics (momentum, volume pressure, trend acceleration, and volatility-normalized price location). The construction combines (i) causal centering, (ii) linear aggregation into a composite observable, (iii) causal stabilization via a one-dimensional Kalman filter, and (iv) an adaptive ``forward-like'' operator that mixes the composite signal with a smoothed causal derivative term. The resulting observable is mapped into a transparent decision functional and evaluated through realized cumulative returns and turnover. An application to high-frequency EURUSDT (1-minute) illustrates that causally constructed observables can exhibit substantial economic relevance in specific regimes, while degrading under subsequent regime shifts, highlighting both the potential and the limitations of causal signal design in non-stationary markets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_24621
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Forward-Oriented Causal Observables for Non-Stationary Financial Markets
Souza, Lucas A.
Computational Finance
We study short-horizon forecasting in financial time series under strict causal constraints, treating the market as a non-stationary stochastic system in which any predictive observable must be computable online from information available up to the decision time. Rather than proposing a machine-learning predictor or a direct price-forecast model, we focus on \emph{constructing} an interpretable causal signal from heterogeneous micro-features that encode complementary aspects of the dynamics (momentum, volume pressure, trend acceleration, and volatility-normalized price location). The construction combines (i) causal centering, (ii) linear aggregation into a composite observable, (iii) causal stabilization via a one-dimensional Kalman filter, and (iv) an adaptive ``forward-like'' operator that mixes the composite signal with a smoothed causal derivative term. The resulting observable is mapped into a transparent decision functional and evaluated through realized cumulative returns and turnover. An application to high-frequency EURUSDT (1-minute) illustrates that causally constructed observables can exhibit substantial economic relevance in specific regimes, while degrading under subsequent regime shifts, highlighting both the potential and the limitations of causal signal design in non-stationary markets.
title Forward-Oriented Causal Observables for Non-Stationary Financial Markets
topic Computational Finance
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.24621