Applying market profile theory to forecast Taiwan Index Futures market

This research applies a market profile to establish an indicator to classify the correlation between the variation in price and value with the stock trends. The indicator and technical index are neural network architecture parameters that assist to extrapolate the market logic and knowledge rules that influence the TAIEX futures market structure via an integral assessment of physical quantities. To implement the theory of market profile on neural network architecture, this study proposes qualitative and quantitative methods to compute a market profile indicator. In addition, the indicator considers the variation and relevance between long-term and short-term trends by incorporating the long-term and short-term change in market in its calculation. An assessment of forecasting performance on different calculation approaches of market profile indicator and technical analysis is conducted to differentiate their accuracies and profitability. The experimental results show the qualitative market profile indicator outperforms the quantitative approach in a short-term forecast period. In contrast, the quantitative market profile indicator has a better trend-predicting ability, thus it is more effective in the long-term forecast period. The integration of market profile and technical analysis surpasses technical analysis as a neural network architecture parameter by effectively improving forecasting performance and profitability. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.