118: Trading technology, alternative data, and originality w/ Manoj Narang

Aaron Fifield Podcast 2 Comments


High-speed trading veteran, Manoj Narang, originally worked on Wall St for the likes of Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs prior to founding Tradeworx, which became one of the larger trading firms in the U.S. (in terms of volume).

He’s since parted ways with Tradeworx to start MANA Partners—an innovative quant fund which raised almost one billion dollars for it’s launch in January this year (2017).

As a brief summary for some of the things we got to chat about; the value of technology which drives some trading operations, capitalizing on the explosion of data, plus why aspiring traders should be willing to buck the trend and think freely.

Manoj Narang: High-speed trading pioneer, founder of Tradeworx and MANA Partners.

Topics of discussion:

  • Before Tradeworx and MANA Partners; Manoj talks about the eight years he spent working on Wall St, time at Goldman, and learning how to reason quantitatively.
  • The state of retail trading and financial markets during the late-90’s, and how it morphed Tradeworx from tech company to hedge fund to leading HFT firm.
  • Manoj explains why the technology that drives quantitative trading firms can often be more valuable than the PnL which can be extracted through trading.
  • How MANA Partners are positioning themselves to capitalize on the explosion of data, using alternative data for less crowded opportunities and lower correlation.

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