Metaphorical Operational Research (MOR) – A new insight Metaphors of Paired Shares and Binary Stars

This study introduces Metaphorical Operational Research (MOR) as a new insight into decision making and answers to some criticisms of classical Operational Research (OR). It also shows the ability of MOR to describe pairs trading problems.

The basic assumption of the study is that classic OR is still in the crisis phase before the paradigm shift and no competing paradigm has ever been able to overcome it and provide a complete response to the criticisms. Therefore, in order to respond to some of the criticisms, this study tried to introduce MOR as a new subject in the field of OR. The main focus of this paper was to introduce the problem representation process (as a classic OR critical point) using MOR as a novel approach to problem structuring. Also, in order to show the ability of MOR, this study used pairs trading problems as a case study and binary stars as a source domain. This study used MOR to redefine the pairs trading problems in the form of binary stars and theorize in this field.

The findings of this study show that there are six principles as the main theories of this research in pairs trading problems by looking at it through the window of binary stars. These principles include the principle of the common center of gravity, the principle of historical records, the principle of divergence convergence, the principle of external conditions neutrality, the property of being a pair, and the existence of different classes of pairs.

Two general conclusions can be drawn from the study. First, it is possible to communicate between binary stars and paired shares through MOR. Second, MOR can solve some problems that classical OR cannot address.