We’ve been talking a lot about quants and algos recently – like this whitepaper, this blog, and this blog – which only strengthens the thought that, though necessary, quants and algos can be confusing. Even for us, who happen to share coffee and donuts with a whole in-house team of quants dedicated to working on that stuff all day, every day. So we wanted to put together a little something that explains what the heck these algos do. Why use automated execution algorithms? Here’s why:
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One of the best follows on non-financial Twitter is Salesforce.com’s Chief Digital Evangelist: Vala Ashsfar. He comes up with inspiring lists highlighting what it means to be a good mentor, what money can’t buy (happy home, manners, etc.), and companies founded by immigrants (Apple, Google, Amazon to name a few). Not to mention his mesmerizing videos of things like how chicken wire is made, machines sorting parts, and harvesting olives. But the meat of his feed deals with the ever-expanding use of new technologies, and especially AI’s future role:
If you haven’t heard yet, 35 year old James Holzhauer has been killing it on Jeopardy of late. Per fivethirtyeight.com:
Holzhauer has played this game like no one has ever played it before — large bets coupled with expert navigation of the game board. He has now [won 19] games with his total winnings sitting above $1,000,000 and counting, and he is well on his way to surpassing the $2,520,700 won by the most famous “Jeopardy!” record-holder of all, Ken Jennings. One difference? It took Jennings 74 straight victorious shows to bring in that haul, and if he maintains his current pace, Holzhauer is on track to break that record in as few as 34.
Why do we care? Beyond James being from nearby Naperville, IL and a graduate of University of Illinois, which we do some work with through the RCM University Program, it piqued our interest because how he’s doing it is rather quant-like. He goes for high values first, and then attacks the board looking for daily doubles with which to double the gains already gotten. He’s applying his own quantitative model of sorts, albeit run on the wetware of his brain instead of modern computer hardware, on how to go about placing bets and choosing squares on the board.