Artificial intelligence will make hedge fund managers less collaborative and more competitive — if this year’s “quant Olympics” are anything to go by. The annual event, officially called the International Quant Championship, took place in Singapore this week and offered a real-time insight into how the hedge fund industry is being upended by AI.
Quant — or quantitative — hedge funds use algorithms to exploit patterns in financial markets. They have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rise of AI in recent years, recording huge gains in recent weeks from gyrations in global government bonds. Students from 13 countries competed for a $100,000 cash prize pool and the chance to work in a sector experiencing “radical transformation”, said Igor Tulchinsky, chief executive of World Quant — the fund manager that organises the event.
The quant sector is at an “inflection point”, he said. “Some firms are using the new technologies to make crazy amounts of money. Once you try AI, you never turn back because the improvements are so significant.” This year more than 156,000 students from around the world entered — almost double last year’s total. The surge in applicants is partly due to AI, organisers said, as the tools were freely available and allowed more people to take part.
On Wednesday, each finalist presented their results to the judges and their fellow competitors, with Victor Ayebameru from Nigeria taking the crown. The number of solo entries increased more than 75,000 this year, while there were just 1,000 additional teams. Organisers said this was another consequence of increased use of AI as individual applicants were able to carry out the same work that it previously took whole research teams to conduct.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing