The start of the summer marks the beginning of Quantbot’s intern season, which kicked off on Tuesday, June 3rd with a “meet the team” get-together in the New York office.
All of the partners were in attendance, including our global partners from the London and Hong Kong offices! Paul started the evening with an inspiring speech that set a wonderful tone for the night, as everyone chatted and got to know each other better over a delicious spread of food.
We welcomed 10 new interns in New York this year, and look forward to seeing their development and growth at Quantbot in the coming months!
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On May 5th, the Quantbot team in New York had the privilege of hearing from Kharen Musaelian and Dario Villani of Qognitive, as they presented their lecture, "Quantum Cognition Machine Learning: a path to human-like abstraction and inference.”
The lecture outlined new machine learning developments being made by Qognitive employees that could potentially benefit many spheres of our day-to-day lives, from finance to health care. Qognitive informed us of their unique approach that allows them to scale large data sets, providing additional insights that statistical learning techniques may miss.
We thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the representatives from Qognitive and learning about their innovative developments, and we look forward to hearing more in the future!
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The Quantbot Annual Company dinner took place on Wednesday, May 7th at L'Avenue at Saks, with the New York office in attendance to enjoy great food and conversation with colleagues.
Attendees were greeted into the gorgeous venue with drinks before having a lovely seated dinner.
This year, we decided to introduce the new "Quantbot Team Choice Awards," giving staff the opportunity to vote within three categories for their hard-working colleagues to honor a few standout individuals.
Iris was awarded most year over year growth, Lily was celebrated for best demonstration of the Quantbot culture day in and day out, and Amy took home the MVP of 2024 award. Congrats to all of the amazing winners!
Everyone had an incredible time at the event, and we are already looking forward to getting together next year for the Quantbot dinner!
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On May 1st, Paul took part in the Investment Spotlight event held by Schonfeld in New York, speaking alongside Tom DeBow, the Chief Technology Officer of Schonfeld, for one of the three panels. The fireside chat was moderated by Ryan Tolkin, CEO & CIO of Schonfeld, as they discussed key strategic topics such as Tom’s approach to building and scaling technology to support quant trading strategies, as well as scaling Schonfeld’s systematic business. Additionally, Paul illustrated how Quantbot is structured, and how this structure has allowed us to remain successful over the long term in a highly competitive space. The constantly evolving partnerships between Schonfeld and Quantbot, as well as the Code Willing platform and partnership, were highlighted as vital parts of the company’s success.
This discussion was followed by two other panels comprised of internal portfolio managers, with Paul being the only external PM to participate in the Spotlight event!
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On April 3rd and 4th, Schonfeld held their PhD Datathon with Codewilling in New York City. Powered by Code Willing's CWIQ Suite, the Datathon was part of the second annual Schonfeld Early Engagement Summit, and allowed PhD candidates to demonstrate their skills in a competitive and exciting environment alongside industry professionals. Alongside Schonfeld portfolio managers and researchers, students helped to analyze institutional-grade datasets and develop quantitative models, made easier with the CWIQ Suite platform that enabled participants to efficiently build and test their models.
While the competition served to test the skills of the attendees, the post-competition discussions allowed students to engage in networking opportunities with members of the team, gaining insight into the fascinating culture and operations of Schonfeld. We are already looking forward to participating next time!
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On March 27th, Paul joined Ian Webster, Neudata’s CRO, on stage for a keynote talk titled “Future-proofing: Competing in an AI-driven, Constantly Changing Quant Landscape.” Ian kicked things off by asking Paul to compare managing Quantbot to parenting a seventeen-year-old—a question that prompted a rather entertaining and anecdotal response (if you were there to hear it).
The bulk of the discussion focused on the importance of data in the quantitative investment process, and how essential it is to have strong partners to support the non-IP side of the technical workload. Paul emphasized that AI and machine learning are now critical to taking ideas from the whiteboard to live trading. As such, maximizing the percentage of the team’s time spent on these core activities is of paramount importance.
BLOG INSIGHTS AND ANALYSISQuantbot InsightsExploring the Intersection of Technology and Finance
On March 26th, Paul had the opportunity to deliver a keynote presentation at the 3Forge Expo, held in the iconic Gherkin building in the heart of the City. After some reminiscing about the ‘old days,' Paul spoke about the importance of strong and reliable partnerships in the hyper-competitive world of quantitative investing—and how 3Forge exemplifies just such a partner. The event was also a perfect opportunity to connect with colleagues, partners, and friends whilst taking in the incredible views of the London skyline.
BLOG INSIGHTS AND ANALYSISQuantbot InsightsExploring the Intersection of Technology and Finance
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!
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On March 11th, our CEO, Paul White, participated in a fireside chat at the Quant Strats conference with Budga Bhattacharya, Head of Systematic Research at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. They reflected on their shared experiences at Merrill and discussed their approaches to leading quant investment teams, each focusing on different strategies. The conversation also explored how cloud computing has significantly expanded the use of machine learning and AI, as well as the emerging frontiers for quant teams in the industry. It was an insightful discussion that highlighted the evolving role of technology in quantitative investing and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.
BLOG INSIGHTS AND ANALYSISQuantbot InsightsExploring the Intersection of Technology and Finance
On January 22nd, Paul White, our CEO and Co-founder, took the stage in an unusually chilly Miami to discuss emerging trends in alternative data for 2025. The panel engaged in a lively debate on using data for macroeconomic analysis and the growing role of LLMs and AI within buy-side investment firms.
The key takeaway? That’s easy: we all need more data. However, a crucial undertone emerged- the trading community requires easier access to trial data and a more streamlined process for acquiring proven datasets. This is both an industry and cultural challenge that delays time to market, negatively impacting both buy-side firms and data vendors.
Quantbot refers to this challenge as “R.O.D” Return on Data. If it takes six months or more to obtain trial data, we often see a negative impact on its value, reducing the likelihood of purchasing it for long-term use.
Despite these industry hurdles, Quantbot values events like this as great opportunities to connect with peers, discover new providers, and engage with existing ones. Alternative data means different things to different firms, but our stance remains firm: everyone will need to consume significantly more datasets to stay competitive, whether they are alternative or traditional.
This growing demand will require firms to ingest, process, cleanse, and map far larger volumes of data. The big question is which companies will handle this challenge without massively increasing bottom-line costs.
