Quantopian, the investment management firm that provides a free online platform to write investment algorithms, has made allocations of tens of millions of dollars to some of the best of its crowd-sourced algorithms.
The allocations range from USD100,000 to USD3 million per algorithm. These are the first allocations made with external money being managed by Quantopian.
The members of the Quantopian community receiving allocations live on five continents and in eight countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Spain, and the US. They come from many walks of life, including data science, finance, engineering, software development, and academia.
Each author has licensed his or her algorithm to Quantopian and will be paid 10 per cent of the algorithm’s net profits, while retaining ownership of the intellectual property.
“Talent is everywhere in the world, not just at hedge funds located around New York City,” says John Fawcett (pictured), CEO of Quantopian. “Quantopian gives talented people anywhere the chance to learn how to create new investing strategies and apply what they’ve learned on our platform. We are just beginning to give people a chance to put their knowledge to work.”
Quantopian selected the algorithms from the Quantopian community after a rigorous process with both automated and human components. Quantopian intends to ramp up both the size and the number of allocations on a monthly basis.
"We are looking forward to increasing steadily the value of our allocations in the coming months – from tens and then to hundreds of millions of dollars,” says Jonathan Larkin, Quantopian’s chief investment officer.
Quantopian’s platform allows authors to research and test their ideas and use a fast-growing catalogue of high-quality datasets. More than 120,000 members from 180 countries have used the platform and run more than six million simulations.
“Our research and educational platform for algorithm authors is now matched by a state-of-the-art trading system to provide high quality trade execution services for investors,” says Fawcett.
Quantopian has assembled an experienced trading team over the last year as part of its investment management practice.
