On March 29th, Quantbot employees had the exciting opportunity to participate in the annual Carnegie Mellon Master of Science in Computational Finance (MSCF) Datathon, an event that brings together some of the brightest minds in finance and technology. This year, the same datathon took place simultaneously in two locations - New York and Pittsburgh - offering students a dynamic and competitive environment to showcase their quantitative and programming skills.

Quantbot mentors, including Zihao, Richard, Shrinath, Zexiang, Aditya, and Aneesh, joined a mix of undergraduate and master's students in Pittsburgh, while Ian represented teams in New York. Their role was to guide participants through the rigorous competition, providing valuable insights and expertise in quantitative finance and algorithmic trading.

The challenge for the students was to develop a model to predict daily stock returns using provided datasets. Their strategies were evaluated based on five key metrics: Sharpe ratio, maximum drawdown, total traded amount, up/down ratio, and overall return. The team with the best performance across these criteria emerged as the winner.

Beyond the competition, the datathon was a fantastic opportunity for students to interact with industry professionals, gain hands-on experience with real-world financial data, and refine their problem-solving skills. Our mentors had an incredible time engaging with the students, sharing their knowledge, and being part of such an inspiring event.

We look forward to participating in future datathons and continuing to support the next generation of innovators in quantitative finance!