Quantitative investing
with a twist

 

Announcement

We’ve launched Takahē Capital to make what used to be the 2Q Portfolio investable. Learn more by clicking on the red button, or contact us if you’d like to speak about the details!

Man or Machine?

Systematic or discretionary trading? What’s better?

While we’re inclined to favor a systematic approach as quants, we realize that systematic and discretionary trading processes share many similarities. The key difference is that the former encapsulates the decision-making dynamics in a rules-based framework, while the latter doesn’t.

Coded trading programs allow us to systematically repeat a tried and trusted method. That’s a great thing. The machine places our bets in the markets while we remove ourselves from the day-to-day trading process. If our trading program has edge and is resilient in design, we should be rewarded with gains.

Humans on the other hand can be highly inventive and see things which machines cannot – or at least not easily. But how can you make sure that what you see is real rather than a noisy Fata Morgana of the markets? Well, there’s never a guarantee, but once you’re able to blend statistical observations with long-term trading experience, you can increase the odds of discovering something valuable.

Twoquants® is both. Model-driven, but human. That’s our recipe for playing the hardest game in the world.

“No man is better than a machine, and no machine is better than a man with a machine.” (Paul Tudor Jones)

WHO WE ARE

We are two quantitative traders with a background in professional investment management, derivatives trading and quantitative research. We are interested in quant-driven trading strategies and, perhaps most importantly, are supported by an AI bot and a really cool dog.

WHAT WE BELIEVE IN

We think there is a better way to investing than long-only buy-and-hope. We believe portfolios must be protected against large drawdowns while staying exposed to the topside at the same time. We are convinced that there is alpha in the interplay between systems and humans.

WHAT WE DO

Model-driven, but human – that’s our philosophy. We combine systematic strategies in single and spread markets with option positions. Most importantly, we trade our own money live at Takahē Capital. We also share some of our trading insights in our MTTM Newsletter.

SIGN UP TO “METHODS TO THE MADNESS”

LATEST BLOG POST

New “Open Interest” Podcast Series on TTU

October 2nd, 2023|

A couple of weeks ago, I started my new "Open Interest" podcast series on Top Traders Unplugged, a show which got started by Niels Kaastrup-Larsen more than a decade ago. Many of you will likely know TTU as one of the best trading and investing-related podcasts in the world, and I'm excited to be back! As ever, maintaining a spirit of curiosity and open-mindedness is important - [...]

MEDIA

Maximizing Diversification: The Trend Following Trading Think Tank

May 14th, 2024|0 Comments

A farmer throws many seeds, a tennis player hits more than one ball, and a trend following trader places many probing bets in the markets, using a consistent risk budgeting framework for statistical equality. Where we, that is Jerry Parker, Richard Brennan, and Simon M, all agree, is this: Diversification benefits are gratis. There’s no cost other than having the computer run [...]

TRADE IDEAS & TOOLS

  • Measuring_Size

Position Sizing: A Systematic Tool to Add to Your Trading Toolkit

February 5th, 2021|0 Comments

When most people think about systematic trading, they likely picture a price chart with a plethora of moving averages, oscillators, and trend lines all with the goal of nailing the perfect entry right before a market takes off for the moon. While a good deal of time in systematic strategy development is devoted to entry and exit methodology, the greatest [...]

Methods to the Madness – The 2Q Newsletter

Our MTTM newsletter covers a diverse range of topics. When we write about trading, we aim to synthesize quant-driven investment ideas into actionable trades. We zero in on price trends, momentum, spreads, correlation, and volatility. We look at futures, equities, ETPs, options, and digital assets – and anything else that crosses our quantitative trading minds. This, we hope, makes the MTTM newsletter original and unique.

Our Core Values

  • We want to be guided by what matters: data, numbers, facts

  • We search for anomalies in the data and, where possible, seek to enter into trades to exploit them

  • We always want to improve our trading, do something better, find something new

  • We are agnostic to what the markets seem to be or what people say they are. Biases can kill you when trading in the markets

  • We read a lot, and across many subjects. This may not be a competitive advantage, but not doing it simply isn’t an option

  • We study market history and investors’ traumas to become better traders