Rise of the Quantitative Robots
I read an article at Bloomberg the other day that focused upon a former mathematics professor who now runs his own Mom & Pop ‘quant’ shop (his home) from the desert plains in New Mexico. The article noted that there are big, powerful quants in New York City and there is a constellation of little guys out there writing their algos and skimming the markets with the precision that mathematical codes instruct.
Meet the DIY Quants Who Ditched Wall St for the Desert
It was a cute story as our little quant gets to step outside and breathe the desert air when he gets stressed. These little satellites even have their own quant superstore of sorts called Quantopian. Some guys go to home depot or the local hardware store (to the extent they still exist) for their tools. These guys go to Quantopian for their tools and software to build out their own unique quant strategies.
This got me thinking about the markets in general and the S&P 500 in particular. I have called the vast global markets an amalgam of investors, casino patrons, day traders, substance abusers, black boxes and algos because it seems on any given day or week to be a hyper frenetic, emotion-driven mess.
