Some quant shops doomed to ‘struggle’ – López de Prado

Theory-first firms must modernise their methods or wither, says machine learning expert

Quant shops that stick too stubbornly to theory when devising strategies will trail behind maths-driven “empiricists” who analyse data with no preconceptions. That’s according to Marcos López de Prado, the former head of machine learning at AQR and founder of a new venture that aims to disrupt the traditional quant asset management business.

“Testing only flawed theories leads to confirmation bias. What I call the maths-quant firms will continue to thrive because of the growing number of