The Past And Future Of Quant Investing Go Head To Head In London

It’s been called the future of finance. Everyone — from hedge fund managers to big banks to individual investors — is doing it. And yet, when it comes to quant investing, one person has been at the ball long before most people even knew about the party.

Bartt Kellerman And His Battle Of The Quants

That’s Bartt Kellerman, the founder and CEO of Battle of the Quants.

Kellerman started Battle Of The Quants 11 years ago, at a time when “no one was paying attention to quants.”

“Battle of the Quants was born to increase attention to [quant investing],” said Kellerman. “Now the whole tide has turned and all the big banks have quant events.”

It's About Open Dialogue

With events in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and London, Battle of the Quants aims to not only highlight the newest trends in quant investing, but serve as a forum for investors to discuss the different approaches to investing — systematic and traditional — and which is better. This panel, or “battle,” as it’s known in Battle of the Quants parlance, is often the conference’s main event.

Kellerman is getting ready for the next week’s conference in London, which will focus on harnessing big data, using blockchain and how institutional investors can pivot to quants. The main event will involve a discussion between new quants (and their use of machine learning and big data) against traditional quants (and their reliance on price, volume and traditional financial data).

Kellerman said they used to award a winner of the main debate, but have since stopped, saying it’s more about the spirit of the discussion.

The conference will also give the chance for people to see what tools are being developed at three featured quant-focused firms: Orbital Insights, Melonport and CargoMetrics. Each of these companies — a satellite image provider, blockchain software provider and hedge fund, respectively — are at the forefront of the quant investing space.

“It’s not just collecting the data and organizing it, but using 25 Ph.D.s and trying to find alpha,” Kellerman said of Orbital Insights, which uses satellite imagery to help inform investing decisions. “And that’s the holy grail of this new world of quants. There are a lot of naysayers out there who say [big data] can’t predict price.”

'Nobody Puts Quants In A Corner'

Even as quant investing has grown in popularity, Kellerman’s BotQ event remains one of the leading events in the space, attracting speakers from Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS, WorldQuant and Allianz SE (ADR) AZSEY.

“It’s sort of like the dot com bubble; everyone is saying they’re quants,” said Kellerman. “We started this 11 years ago when quants were out of favor, and we think we've put together one of the best programs that highlight the main ideas out there.”

What’s the main idea?

“Nobody puts quants in a corner.”