I've been looking for prop shops that are algo-based. I found one, but it's trading platform was so weak...it was laughable.
No variables, crude macro language and a circular buffer limited to 5 periods of lookback.
Anyone know of a decent prop shop with a good algo platform ?
Interesting thought, but they should start licensing this to other prop firms.
Aren't they effectively acting as a prop firm for the contest winners who get to trade $100k capital and keep 100% of the profits ?
I feel like many prop firms have tech that are way better than Q's platform. I'm not saying that Q sucks but its easy to see that Prop trading firms and Q have different objectives. Q empowers retail (and maybe even institutional) investors to create their own algorithms through a generalized SaaS platform, while prop trading firms just need to have a single piece of technology that caters to their needs so it can be much faster and efficient but pretty narrow in scope.
re: "but pretty narrow in scope"
I just reviewed a prop firm's platform and found it to be barely usable:
1) Had tick level data repository but couldn't form tick bars
2) Circular buffer limited to 5 periods (yikes !)
3) Could not support a SAR (stop and reverse) strategy...i.e. start 1000 shares long, short 2000 shares, then long 2000 shares, etc.
4) Macro language was weak - didn't even support variables !
If you know a prop firm with a decent platform, I'd love to know about it.
From what little I know of propshops:
If they're big enough, they build their own software.
If they built it they will never share it and you'll never know it exists.
They probably use Bloomberg regardless of automation tools.
Tools that they do use are $$$:
Deltix, Portware, Quanthouse, TradingTechnologies, Flextrade, 4thStory
Backtest, analysis + automated trading + execution management = $$$
This was kinda useful:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/Universal/servlet/MarketPlace.MarketPlaceServlet
Aren't they effectively acting as a prop firm for the contest winners who get to trade $100k capital and keep 100% of the profits ?
Not really. The contest is a way to attract lots of candidate managers for the Q crowd-sourced hedge fund, which, as best I can tell, is the heart of their (likely revised) business plan. The fact that there are monthly winners is just marketing material. The real prize is if Q succeeds, they can fund algos up to $25M with institutional money. And to get to their goal of $10B, my sense is that some Q quants could end up with $100M or more. Or the whole idea could go up in flames, which is what most good start-ups should end up doing anyway, if they have the risk-reward formulated correctly.
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