Quant investing
Investing is often seen as a blend of art and science, but the past decade has seen rapid growth in strategies that try to exclude the former entirely, instead seeking sources of return that are a provable feature of a market. These scientific investors are generally poorly served by mainstream finance publications.
Our aim is to cover, in plain English, the ideas and trends that matter. That means articles on research – into new sources of premia and shifting market behaviours, for example – as well as products and strategy. We also report on the related topics of data science, and trends in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Technical content can be found in our ‘Cutting Edge’ section, where we publish practitioner-focused, peer-reviewed papers.
Quants miss the ‘obvious’: a safe-haven factor in bonds
After carry, the flight-to-quality factor – the ‘elephant in the room’ – is a key driver, a study says
Pimco deploys neural net model in agency bonds
Old models for $7 trillion mortgage market overstate risk in some cases, asset manager says
Goldman improves execution ‘by 50%’ with new algos
Bank uses neural networks and other AI tools to cut slippage in stock trading
The rise of the robot quant
The latest big idea in machine learning is to automate the drudge work in model-building for quants
QMA’s Dyson: AI a ‘wonderful marketing concept’
Quant firm sceptical about using artificial intelligence to seek out tradable strategies
GAM Systematic’s Ewan Kirk is sticking to his guns
Have markets changed? “They always do,” says quant fund CIO
AllianceBernstein uses AI to sidestep ‘growth trap’
Random forest model aims to sort success stories like Amazon and Netflix from fast-growth losers
PanAgora uses NLP to cut through Chinese cyber speak
Fund builds Mandarin-reading algo to gauge sentiment of retail investors
AQR takes step into exotic trend following
$200-billion quant firm joins those plugging new take on strategy that’s struggled
Aspect Capital’s just-in-time metamorphosis
Martin Lueck on the trend follower’s launch of new strategies that cushioned last year’s blows
One size does not fit all – Adapting to meet investment goals
Guillaume Arnaud, global head of quantitative investment strategies (QIS), and Sandrine Ungari, head of cross-asset quantitative research at Societe Generale, explore the benefits of QIS for investors, why flexibility is crucial for investors to meet…
How Amazon and Netflix disrupted value investing
New business models have upset a common metric in the quant strategy
Risk premia strategies – Lessons learned for the future
After a difficult 2018, investors are increasingly wary of risk premia, concerned that factors leading to underperformance might be a recurring problem. Imene Moussa, executive director at UBS, clarifies this issue
CICC Hong Kong scrutinises quant strategies after sector's woes
Asset manager strives to understand better the drivers of risk premia returns
Neuberger trusts market-timing model to hook China investors
Fund aims to smooth returns for buy-siders spooked by past market dips
Stock-pickers take note: the quants are coming
Quant funds are turning their hand to fundamental investing
How does it look from space? Satellite surge to alter investing
Higher-frequency images set for use in entirely new ways and by more investors than before
Podcast: Venturelli and Kondratyev on quantum annealing
Authors show how quantum theory could aid portfolio construction
Quants blame crowding and concentration for bleak 2018
Funds are still struggling to explain why so many of them did so badly last year
Systematic manager puts up guardrails for AI
Boston-based Acadian aims to limit risks from complex, machine learning algorithms
China Minsheng and SocGen team up for quant index product
CMBC Macro 1 signal index attracts $580 million as investors adapt to products without performance guarantees
Funds hunt for the real McCoy in alternative data jungle
Uncorrelated information is a rare species but there are other ways to make funky new data work