Application of stochastic recurrent reinforcement learning to index trading

A novel stochastic adaptation of the recurrent reinforcement learning (RRL) methodology is applied to daily, weekly, and monthly stock index data, and compared to results obtained elsewhere using genetic programming (GP). The data sets used have been a considered a challenging test for algorithmic trading. It is demonstrated that RRL can reliably outperform buy-and-hold for the higher frequency data, in contrast to GP which performed best for monthly data.