Inside the Black Box: The Simple Truth About Quantitative Trading

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John Wiley & Sons, Aug 7, 2009 - Business & Economics - 240 pages
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Inside The Black Box

The Simple Truth About Quantitative Trading

Rishi K Narang

Praise for

Inside the Black Box

"In Inside the Black Box: The Simple Truth About Quantitative Trading, Rishi Narang demystifies quantitative trading. His explanation and classification of alpha will enlighten even a seasoned veteran."
?Blair Hull, Founder, Hull Trading & Matlock Trading

"Rishi provides a comprehensive overview of quantitative investing that should prove useful both to those allocating money to quant strategies and those interested in becoming quants themselves. Rishi's experience as a well-respected quant fund of funds manager and his solid relationships with many practitioners provide ample useful material for his work."
?Peter Muller, Head of Process Driven Trading, Morgan Stanley

"A very readable book bringing much needed insight into a subject matter that is not often covered. Provides a framework and guidance that should be valuable to both existing investors and those looking to invest in this area for the first time. Many quants should also benefit from reading this book."
?Steve Evans, Managing Director of Quantitative Trading, Tudor Investment Corporation

"Without complex formulae, Narang, himself a leading practitioner, provides an insightful taxonomy of systematic trading strategies in liquid instruments and a framework for considering quantitative strategies within a portfolio. This guide enables an investor to cut through the hype and pretense of secrecy surrounding quantitative strategies."
?Ross Garon, Managing Director, Quantitative Strategies, S.A.C. Capital Advisors, L.P.

"Inside the Black Box is a comprehensive, yet easy read. Rishi Narang provides a simple framework for understanding quantitative money management and proves that it is not a black box but rather a glass box for those inside."
?Jean-Pierre Aguilar, former founder and CEO, Capital Fund Management

"This book is great for anyone who wants to understand quant trading, without digging in to the equations. It explains the subject in intuitive, economic terms."
?Steven Drobny, founder, Drobny Global Asset Management, and author, Inside the House of Money

"Rishi Narang does an excellent job demystifying how quants work, in an accessible and fun read. This book should occupy a key spot on anyone's bookshelf who is interested in understanding how this ever increasing part of the investment universe actually operates."

?Matthew S. Rothman, PhD, Global Head of Quantitative Equity Strategies Barclays Capital

"Inside the Black Box provides a comprehensive and intuitive introduction to "quant" strategies. It succinctly explains the building blocks of such strategies and how they fit together, while conveying the myriad possibilities and design details it takes to build a successful model driven investment strategy."
?Asriel Levin, PhD, Managing Member, Menta Capital, LLC

 

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Contents

THE BENEFIT OF DEEP THOUGHT
THE MEASUREMENT AND MISMEASUREMENT OF RISK
DISCIPLINED IMPLEMENTATION
SUMMARY
WHAT IS A QUANT?
WHAT IS THE TYPICAL STRUCTURE OF A QUANTITATIVE TRADING SYSTEM?
SUMMARY
THEORY DRIVEN AND DATA DRIVEN
SUMMARY
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
IDEA GENERATION
TESTING
SUMMARY
MODEL RISK
REGIME CHANGE RISK
EXOGENOUS SHOCK RISK

THEORYDRIVEN ALPHA MODELS
DATADRIVEN ALPHA MODELS
IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGIES
BLENDING ALPHA MODELS
SUMMARY
LIMITING THE AMOUNT OF RISK
LIMITING THE TYPES OF RISK
SUMMARY
DEFINING TRANSACTION COSTS
TYPES OF TRANSACTION COST MODELS
SUMMARY
RULEBASED PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION MODELS
PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZERS
OUTPUT OF PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION MODELS
SUMMARY
ORDER EXECUTION ALGORITHMS
BLURRING THE LINE BETWEEN ALPHA AND EXECUTION
TRADING INFRASTRUCTURE
SUMMARY
THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA
TYPES OF DATA
SOURCES OF DATA
CLEANING DATA
STORING DATA
CONTAGION OR COMMON INVESTOR RISK
HOW QUANTS MONITOR RISK
SUMMARY
TRADING IS AN ART NOT A SCIENCE
QUANTS CAUSE MORE MARKET VOLATILITY BY UNDERESTIMATING RISK
QUANTS CANNOT HANDLE UNUSUAL EVENTS OR RAPID CHANGES IN MARKET CONDITIONS
QUANTS ARE ALL THE SAME
ONLY A FEW LARGE QUANTS CAN THRIVE IN THE LONG RUN
QUANTS ARE GUILTY OF DATA MINING
SUMMARY
GATHERING INFORMATION
EVALUATING A QUANTITATIVE TRADING STRATEGY
EVALUATING THE ACUMEN OF QUANTITATIVE TRADERS
THE EDGE
EVALUATING INTEGRITY
HOW QUANTS FIT INTO A PORTFOLIO
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 1 Why Does Quant Trading Matter?
Alpha Models
CHAPTER 6 Portfolio Construction Models
CHAPTER 8 Data
CHAPTER 11 Criticisms of Quant Trading
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

Rishi K Narang is the Founding Principal of Telesis Capital LLC, which invests in quantitative trading strategies. Previously, he was managing director and coportfolio manager at Santa Barbara Alpha Strategies. Narang cofounded and was president of Tradeworx, Inc., a quantitative hedge fund manager, from 1999–2002. He has been involved in the hedge fund industry, with a focus on quantitative trading strategies, since 1996. Narang graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in economics.

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