WorldQuant’s New Fund Said to Lose 9.5% as Chaos Smashes Algos

[Overnight]

Is there something wrong with thinking you're not a master of the markets

I never indicated or thought that I ever was a "master of the markets", in this thread or anywhere on this forum. I know I am a yeoman when it comes to this stuff. I am on a path, like everyone else here. And I mean EVERYONE.

"What does he have a PhD in? The philosophy of how to make gobs of cash losing money that is not his own? Where can I take that course? Wait, my conscience will not allow me to do that, so I will probably die penniless. Sux to have morals."

I chose to second-hand answer your slightly sarcastic post with something a bit more sarcastic. I thought it would add more funny to the thread, which is something we need here at the tail-end of 2018.

I guess I did not read the intent of your post correctly, and now you are making a mountain out of a tiny mole-hill. We can either drop this conversation, continue on into a flame war here, (which is against the rules BTW), take it to PM or just ignore each other. Your call. We can declare peace, war, or NAP. Ball is in your court. Choose wisely.

 

[d08]

What total nonsense.

Chaos ? What chaos ? Markets that go up are fine and dandy, but markets that go down are chaos ?

Any moron looking at charts can see that markets go up and down and have always done so.

Don't you get it. Markets should always go up with minimal fluctuations. So Igor Englander, Izzy Tulchinsky and Shalom Goldberg create an OPM fund, leverage all long positions, buy some fancy screens, hire PhDs to make it look complex and proceed to make billions.

 

[nooby_mcnoob]

I never indicated or thought that I ever was a "master of the markets", in this thread or anywhere on this forum. I know I am a yeoman when it comes to this stuff. I am on a path, like everyone else here. And I mean EVERYONE.

"What does he have a PhD in? The philosophy of how to make gobs of cash losing money that is not his own? Where can I take that course? Wait, my conscience will not allow me to do that, so I will probably die penniless. Sux to have morals."

I chose to second-hand answer your slightly sarcastic post with something a bit more sarcastic. I thought it would add more funny to the thread, which is something we need here at the tail-end of 2018.

I guess I did not read the intent of your post correctly, and now you are making a mountain out of a tiny mole-hill. We can either drop this conversation, continue on into a flame war here, (which is against the rules BTW), take it to PM or just ignore each other. Your call. We can declare peace, war, or NAP. Ball is in your court. Choose wisely.

K

 

[sle]

Don't you get it. Markets should always go up with minimal fluctuations. So Igor Englander, Izzy Tulchinsky and Shalom Goldberg create an OPM fund, leverage all long positions, buy some fancy screens, hire PhDs to make it look complex and proceed to make billions.

While I pretty much despise one of them, in fairness they have most of their personal net worths invested in their respective funds (unlike that dude with a fancy watch).

 

[ironchef]

What total nonsense.

Chaos ? What chaos ? Markets that go up are fine and dandy, but markets that go down are chaos ?

Any moron looking at charts can see that markets go up and down and have always done so.

But quants don't look at charts, they use quants.

 

[maximumpossiblesuffering]

WorldQuant’s New Fund Said to Lose 9.5% as Chaos Smashes Algos (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — WorldQuant’s first fund for outside investors lagged behind its target index in October and has underperformed the benchmark since it started, according to people who have been briefed on the returns. The $2.6 billion quant stock fund, a joint venture between Igor Tulchinsky’s WorldQuant and Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, is designed to significantly outperform the MSCI World Index, said the people, asking not to be identified because the returns haven’t been publicly disclosed. The fund, which started in May, dropped 9.5 percent in October, compared with a 7.3 percent decline in the index.

I wonder if WorldQuant’s algo got reversed-engineered by a competitor whose traders either noticed certain new trading patterns or a competing and more robust algo was able to exploit WorldQuant’s algo? In addition, it seems that WorldQuant did not have a circuit breaker built into their algo.

Survival of the fittest, intellectually fittest, comes to mind here.

 

[Saltynuts]

This whole thing is weird to me on so many levels. Take this statement:

"The fund is designed to beat the MSCI World Index by 300 to 600 basis points annually."

What the heck does that even mean? I understand how one can use leverage in the futures market to say something like "this fund is supposed to move 2x the underlying." But how can one say "designed to OUTPERFORM" by some metric, and it be anything other than pure marketing bullshit? How is that anything other than blatant false advertising?

The whole chaos smashing algorithms thing I dont get what that is supposed to mean I am sure I am saying it wrong.

 

[schweiz]

Wait. I thought PhDs are smart.

Smart is only true in linked specific areas. Clearly Phd's are very smart, but not in the right area: trading.
A mathematical genius is very good in math. And math is an exact science. Trading is not an exact science. That's the problem. They have to perform in something they never learned.
Creativity and thinking out of the box are many times the essential missing parts. Most inventions are the result of creativity and thinking out of the box.

 

[Scataphagos]

What total nonsense.

Chaos ? What chaos ? Markets that go up are fine and dandy, but markets that go down are chaos ?

Any moron looking at charts can see that markets go up and down and have always done so.

Everyone has become so accustomed to the "Fed put", they think the sky is falling after a few down days.

Years ago a 20% decline in the market was considered "merely noise". Players coped with it, most by just holding through.

Today's players should wish for such volatility to return to the markets... much better profit potential if traded well.

 

[schweiz]

Today's players should wish for such volatility to return to the markets... much better profit potential if traded well.

Exactly.