Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Quantiacs, a quant hedge fund incepted in 2014, has the novel distinction of being built with and by freelancers. By inviting quants to compete their trading programs in contests and offering winners investment funds of up to $1 million, the fund offers freelancers the tools, data and training to create innovative trading algorithms of their own, the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, and bypass orthodox chains of command.

“Great quants can come from anywhere,” Martin Froehler, founder and CEO of Quantiacs, told Forbes magazine. “We are shifting the power of quantitative trading away from bankers and hedge funds, and towards hackers and scientists.”

The idea for the crowd-sourced hedge fund came from Mr Froehler’s disappointment in having to turn away too many a qualified quant for a quantitative trading research firm he was running in Switzerland. Recognizing the sheer waste of talent and opportunity, Mr Froehler decided to turn established procedures on their head and open the market to the talent itself. Besides offering training and tools for free, the prizes offered by Quantiac for the best algorithms are paid for with its own money, as more funding becomes available due to interest in this special project from outside investors.

Read the interview with Froehler here.

Picture: (c) Montri-Nipitvittaya—shutterstock.com