quantPORT

Alphacution’s Top Stories for 2020

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever." Steve Jobs I was going to start out by saying that it's been a pivotal year for Alphacution. Problem is, I said the same things at this time last year. So, I supposed that means it's been a good coupla years. The pandemic, volatility, subsequent lockdown - and some luck in timing - drove a lot of attention towards Alphacution's content in 2020. Clearly, Robinhood and payments for order flow (PFOF) were top themes for the year. Our Feed post on Robinhood and trailing stop orders led the year in page views, and represented like no other before it what it looks like when a story goes viral. Not to be outdone, the timely post on the downfall of Ronin Capital also attracted a ton of attention. In fact, if [...]

By |2021-01-04T15:32:41-05:00December 31st, 2020|Open|

quantPORT: First Look at Jefferies Quant Spinout

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda   Today, a post by efinancialcareers was first to report - followed by Bloomberg News - that Jefferies Group would be spinning out the quantPORT division of its Jefferies Investment Advisors (JIA) subsidiary. According to these sources - and regulatory filings - quantPORT (branded as such in 2018) began as a proprietary systematic equity trading team within Jefferies in 2006. As of January 2020, quantPORT claimed regulatory AUM of $3.7 billion. quantPORT's website lists $5 billion as a milestone in 2017. The bet? Better fundraising on the outside; better incentives (and more risks) for the guys behind the wheel... Now, given that Alphacution knows the key players in the story here, it's been on our radar to dig the stat arb data out of the Jefco filings for a long time, if possible. Today's news provided a catalyst to do just that... A few disclaimers before we get to a couple early samples of chart candy: As an "other reporting [...]

By |2020-08-17T07:14:01-04:00May 14th, 2020|For Subscribers|