BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quantopian, the investment management firm that provides a free online platform to write investment algorithms, announced today it has made allocations of tens of millions of dollars to some of the best of its crowd-sourced algorithms. The allocations range from $100,000 to $3 million per algorithm. These are the first allocations made with external money being managed by Quantopian. The members of the Quantopian community receiving allocations live on five continents and in 8 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Spain, and the United States. They come from many walks of life, including data science, finance, engineering, software development, and academia. Each author has licensed his or her algorithm to Quantopian and will be paid 10 percent of the algorithm’s net profits, while retaining ownership of the intellectual property. “Talent is everywhere in the world, not just at hedge funds located around New York City,” said John “Fawce” Fawcett, CEO of Quantopian. “Quantopian gives talented people anywhere the chance to learn how to create new investing strategies and apply what they’ve learned on our platform. We are just beginning to give people a chance to put their knowledge to work.” Quantopian selected the algorithms from the Quantopian community after a rigorous process with both automated and human components. Quantopian intends to ramp up both the size and the number of allocations on a monthly basis. "We are looking forward to increasing steadily the value of our allocations in the coming months -- from tens and then to hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Jonathan Larkin, Quantopian’s Chief Investment Officer. Quantopian’s unique platform allows authors to research and test their ideas and use a fast-growing catalog of high-quality datasets. More than 120,000 members from 180 countries have used the platform and run more than 6 million simulations. “Our research and educational platform for algorithm authors is now matched by a state-of-the-art trading system to provide high quality trade execution services for investors,” Fawcett said. Quantopian has assembled an experienced trading team over the last year as part of its investment management practice. About Quantopian Quantopian inspires talented people from around the world to write investment algorithms. The company provides capital, data, education tools, and infrastructure to algorithm authors. Quantopian offers license agreements for algorithms that fit its investment strategy, and the licensing authors are paid based on their strategy’s individual performance. Quantopian provides everything a quant needs to create a strategy and profit from it. The company has received nearly $50 million in equity investments, including recently closing a Series C fund led by Andreessen Horowitz. Quantopian’s community nearly doubled in each of the last four years, now with more than 120,000 members, including finance professionals, scientists, developers, and students from 180 countries. The members collaborate online and in person at regional meetups, workshops, and Quantopian’s flagship QuantCon events in New York and Singapore. Quantopian provides members a research and development platform, which includes US equity pricing and corporate fundamental data for free. Members may also access a fast-growing catalog of clean, high-quality datasets. To date, more than 6 million simulations have been run on Quantopian’s platform. For more information, visit www.Quantopian.com
Investment management firm Google has allocated tens of millions of dollars to algorithms sourced from thousands of freelance programmer - members . The Steve Cohen - backed company hopes the strategy will disrupt the ailing hedge - fund industry . The Boston - based business said the investment would increase to hundreds of millions of dollars in coming months . The firm offers a free algorithm development tool on its website and licenses the ones it believes looks most promising , paying 10 % of the net profit earned from each piece of code to its author . More than 120,000 developers from 180 countries have so far used its platform .