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In this 87-page, 83-exhibit, 22,700-word case study, "XTX [Invades] Markets," Alphacution publishes its findings - a truly incredible story - about the youngest proprietary trading company to cross the $1 billion revenue threshold in the modern markets era - and the founder, Alex Gerko, who has led that run. Based in London and breaking into the top 10 ranks of overall FX traders before its second birthday, conventional reporting states that XTX Markets Limited was spun out of quant hedge fund manager, GSA Capital Partners, in 2015. This is mostly true. However, the full story of Gerko and his XTX group has never properly been told. In this case study, Alphacution has gone further than it’s ever gone before. Finding data in places like Singapore, France, and India - places where XTX has staked satellites of Gerko’s vision - to paint a clearer picture of how, and maybe why, the company has managed to become so expansive in such a short period of time. Alphacution will not be the last to tell a more complete version of XTX’s story, but we may be the first to attempt it. Our version of that story, the beginnings of which are known to very few insiders, starts in October 2010... This and related case studies are available to premium subscribers or via individual document purchase.

In this 198-page, 273-exhibit, 33,000-word case study, “The Robinhood Effect,” Alphacution brings together data and modeling from 25 entities - 11 retail brokers and 14 wholesale market makers - to explain a new phenomenon that now lives at the center of the US capital markets ecosystem. Alphacution's most ambitious research project to date, this report covers the governing liquidity economics framework that defines PFOF rates, the mechanics of Robinhood's aggressive retail brokerage model, the transformation of the retail brokerage industry, the sophisticated strategy architectures of wholesale market makers, and the "retail flow factors" that impact all market actors in the ecosystem - among many other themes and avenues for future research. An executive summary is available for review and download by open subscribers (w/ free registration). The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

In this 91-page, 102-exhibit case study, “The Rise of Hudson River Trading,” Alphacution adds another leading proprietary trading firm - and recent entrant to the $1 billion+ trading revenue club (2020e) - to its library focused on the most secretive and consequential players in the global markets ecosystem. Notable highlights include the history of Sun Trading and the impacts of its acquisition by Hudson River Trading (HRT) in Q1 2018, and explorations into the firm's European trading operations, US equity and equity option strategies, comparative analysis with select competitors, and revenue estimation, among many other details. An executive summary is available for review and download by open subscribers (w/ free registration). The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

This is the presentation given at the 2020 IEX ARC.IO virtual conference on November 19, 2020. It outlines the research vision and mission for Alphacution's research, lists core data sources (to date), provides an overview of our asset management ecosystem thesis (including capacity of alpha), and draws specifically from notable exhibits in our comprehensive cases studies on the likes of Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), Two Sigma Investments (including certain comparisons to D. E. Shaw), and Jane Street Group. Full Title - Hiding in Plain Sight: Business and Trading Strategy Intelligence from Slow Data

In this 125-page, 149-exhibit, 26,000-word case study, “History of Jane Street,” Alphacution sets a new bar for the scope of a case study focused one of the leading proprietary trading and market making firms in the world, with notable expansions relative to prior cases studies into regional, US option strategy, revenue estimation, and comparative analysis details (including Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and affiliates, and Two Sigma Investments and affiliates). The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

In this 51-page, 61-exhibit case study on one of the most successful quantitative trading firms launched since the dawn of the 21st century  – Two Sigma Investments, LP – Alphacution presents the next in its series of unprecedented reports based on its modeling of many of the most mythological players and impactful themes operating within the current global asset management ecosystem. Of particular note, this report includes a groundbreaking comparative analysis of key strategy parameters between Two Sigma and D. E. Shaw, with additional analytical comparisons that include Millennium Management and Renaissance Technologies; together a grouping of the most revolutionary asset managers in the large-scale quantitative domain. The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

In this 55-page, 64-exhibit case study on one of the most legendary proprietary option trading firms of all time – Susquehanna International Group, LLP – Alphacution publishes the next installment in its unprecedented Hiding in Plain Sight series that leverages an assembly of publicly-available data and a growing library of models based on some of the most impactful market participants in the global asset management ecosystem today. The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

In this 55-page, 45-exhibit case study on market making powerhouse, Citadel Securities, Alphacution continues to expand its unprecedented Hiding in Plain Sight series to explore the unique trading engines and business strategies of the most successful, noteworthy – and mythological – asset managers in the world by presenting its latest storyboard based an assembly of data that lies open to the public. The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

In this 32-page, 38-exhibit case study on the proprietary option trading firm, Spot Trading, that closed in late 2017, Alphacution showcases the information and insights that can be harvested from a cache of data that is hiding in plain sight. This report is also intended to educate clients and our broader network about the mechanics and drivers of macro-market structure, as well as to provide a template that will begin to set expectations for the nature of premium content that is being made available as part of Alphacution’s emerging research subscription service. The full report is available to registered users for download here:

In this 48-page, 35-exhibit study, Alphacution goes to new lengths to apply the axiom that effective management requires effective measurement – and begins the process of supporting its hypothesis that there are persistent – and ultimately, predictable – relationships between trading and operational factors for asset managers. With most asset managers being private, support for this hypothesis also means that technology spending – a rarely observable data item in this universe – can be estimated with more readily observable and contextual data about AUM and employee headcount. Moreover, it turns out that by understanding the relative positioning of technology capital (via spending patterns) with that of human capital, we achieve an unprecedented and quantitative level of understanding about the underlying scope of automation embedded in that firm’s strategy selections. These findings ultimately give birth to Alphacution’s Asset Manager Ecosystem Map, and the deeper exploration into its structural alpha, active management, and passive management zones. The complete case study is available to premium and silver subscribers or via individual report purchase.