Transaction Costs in Execution Trading

Abstract: In the present work we develop a formalism to tackle the problem of optimal execution when trading market securities. More precisely, we introduce a utility function that balances market impact and timing risk, with this last being modelled as the very negative transaction costs incurred by our order execution. The framework is built upon existing theory on optimal trading strategies, but incorporates characteristics that enable distinctive execution strategies. The formalism is complemented by an analysis of various impact models and different distributional properties of market returns.