Meet the DIY Quants Who Ditched Wall Street for the Desert

Discussion in 'Automated Trading' started by nitro, Mar 16, 2016.

  1. nitro

    nitro

    "In the high desert plain of New Mexico, Roger Hunter monitors automated trades on hog futures and currency pairs.

    Four computer screens display a dizzying array of price charts and program codes in the office of his single-story, thatched adobe home in the town of Las Cruces. Out back, where scrub brush stretches into the arid plain between the nearby mountains and the Rio Grande, is a 50-foot-tall wireless Internet tower.

    The 66-year-old former math professor turned DIY quant apologizes if he appears out of sorts. As chief technology officer of a two-man startup called QTS Capital Management, Hunter just pulled an all-nighter fixing a systems glitch.

    It’s a far cry from Wall Street, but Hunter wouldn’t have it any other way.

    “You are away from the hubbub and frantic activity of New York and therefore can be much calmer and more thoughtful,” Hunter said one recent morning, grinding hand-roasted coffee beans. His Kiwi accent is still thick, three decades after decamping to New Mexico to teach abstract algebraic theory. “This is particularly true when developing code and exploring new strategies.”.."

    DessertTrader.jpg

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...at-the-gate-the-inexorable-rise-of-diy-quants
     
    CBC, Laissez Faire, dealmaker and 2 others like this.
  2. "QTS returned 12 percent last year" -- not bad, but not great.
    :rolleyes:
     
  3. CBC

    CBC

    Ol TWS platform.

    Thanks for that story.
     
  4. It sure looks like TWS but what's "OI"?

    Here's his business partner's blog: http://epchan.blogspot.com/
     
  5. CBC

    CBC

    Meant to be ol, should have said..... looks like he's fired up the ol TWS platform.
     
  6. Currency pairs are great for algo trading, but hog futures ?
    WTF ?
    Where did he come up with that as an auto trading instrument ?

    Anything that moves....CL, NQ, etc. is the way to go.
    Autotrading a flat line is stupid IMHO.
     
  7. I trade hog futures.... albeit more slowly.

    I would imagine that running a market making strategy on a 'flat line' is highly profitable.

    GAT