Chapter 203 Athena Fund

The so-called quantitative trading refers to using advanced mathematical models to replace human subjective judgments, using computer technology to select a variety of "high probability" events that can bring excess returns from huge historical data to formulate strategies, which greatly reduces the number of transactions. The impact of investor sentiment fluctuations, and avoid making irrational investment decisions when the market is extremely fanatical or pessimistic.

Therefore, generally speaking, the two most important factors for quantitative trading are mathematical models and computer computing power.

The purpose of these experts that Barron hired, and they were well-known experts in the field of quantitative trading in their previous lives, was to establish a quantitative trading mathematical model belonging to DS Capital, so as to achieve profit through arbitrage through the model.

And these people, Barron hired with high salaries that far exceed current Wall Street income - accordingly, all of them need to sign a strict confidentiality agreement with DS Capital on the day they join the company. Once they breach the contract, they will be Face high compensation.

In fact, with Barron's current ability, those who betrayed him may have to bear more than just monetary compensation...

After all, for a quantitative trading fund company, the mathematical model they use will always be the company's top secret. It is their "food guy" and the result of the maximum investment of manpower and money.

In the initial stages, these people will go to London, where they will conduct research and application of mathematical models.

There was no way, after all, in his previous life, Barron was mostly impressed by quantitative trading funds on Wall Street. As for the leaders of this type of funds in England, compared to their Wall Street counterparts, their reputations were still lower, and they left the deepest impression. The one is Cantab Capital, but this company has not yet been established...

This time entering the field of quantitative trading, DS Capital will establish a new private equity fund called Athena Fund in addition to the Mars Fund.

Athena is the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology. The Athena Fund also represents that DS Capital will use the crystallization of human wisdom to apply arbitrage in quantitative trading.

As for the source of funds for the Athena Fund...

When attending a cocktail party at Goldman Sachs before, Anderson, the boss of the Sands Group, and Steve Van Andel, the chairman of the Amway Group, were very interested in the Mars Fund, a private equity fund under DS Capital.

It’s just that the Mars Fund has closed its investment channel for this year. The next time it opens, it will definitely have to wait until next year.

At that time, Barron gave the two people another option, which was DS Capital’s new fixed income product.

After Barron's introduction, both men became interested.

Because the fixed-income product Barron mentioned has an annualized return of only 10%-15%, which is far less than the over 300% return achieved by the previous Mars fund in this year.

But the most important thing is that this fixed-income fund product can protect your capital!

As we all know, high returns must correspond to high risks.

Therefore, those who invest with extremely large amounts of capital are often not concerned about ultra-high rates of return, but stable and sustained profits. As for the rate of return, being able to outperform inflation is already very satisfactory to them.

Depending on the funding closing period, from 1 to 10 years, the Athena Fund can provide an annualized rate of return from 10% to 15%, and also guarantees that the principal will not suffer a loss, which is great for large-capital investments. Very attractive.

What Barron introduced to them at that time was the Athena Fund to be established.

We must know that the most critical point in conducting quantitative trading is to accurately determine the general market trend of the financial products being invested through analysis.

And about this, I am afraid that the most confident person in the world is Barron, who has the memory of his past life.

Therefore, with his help and increasingly sophisticated mathematical models, the average annual return of the Athena Fund is less than 50%, which is considered a failure...

He was fully confident in his promise to protect investors' capital from the very beginning.

As for the back...

With the success of the Athena fund, coupled with the possible expansion of capital volume in the future, the promise of capital preservation will certainly not continue, and this will not dampen investor enthusiasm.

Just like Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, if you can maintain a stable income of more than 15% for many years, investors will be able to break through the threshold of your company.

So under the guarantee of the capital guarantee agreement, Andersen and Amway Group became the first two investors of the Athena Fund. They will each invest US$50 million into the Athena Fund.

It should be noted that the minimum threshold for Athena fund investment is US$50 million. After all, this fixed-income fund product is designed for large funds.

Because it was the first time to invest in DS Capital's fund products, Andersen and Amway Group were a little more cautious and only chose the minimum threshold of US$50 million to invest, which also brought an initial capital of US$100 million to the Athena Fund. .

The other is the Kennedy family, who have also brought another amount of capital to the Athena Fund—BostonPERS will contribute $100 million to this fund.

Whether it is Andelson, Amway Group, or the Boston Public Employees Retirement Fund, they have carefully chosen fund products with a one-year closed period and will receive a fixed income of 10%.

You know, in the United States, general pension funds are required to earn an average return of 6.5%-7.5% per year. However, because their investment portfolios often suffer some losses, overall, it is difficult to achieve this rate of return. , are already very rare.

Therefore, if the investment of the Boston Public Employees Retirement Fund can obtain a capital-guaranteed 10% annualized return, as guaranteed by the Athena Fund, then they will definitely be able to obtain more investments similar to mutual funds in the future.

In addition, the Kennedy family also invested US$50 million of their own money into the Athena Fund, which is still closed for one year.

In this way, when the Athena Fund was first established, it received US$250 million in funding.

Of course, this is just the beginning, because in the United States, the Athena Fund has already received US$250 million in funding, so in the UK...

You know, mutual funds in the UK, similar to pension funds, are also large in scale.

If private equity funds like the Mars Fund are shunned by mutual funds that pursue stable returns because of their relatively high risk, then Athena Fund, a fund type that provides fixed income and can protect capital, has always been Be welcomed by these sizable mutual funds.

That is to say, the Athena Fund has just been established and has no outstanding record yet, so those mutual funds will not blindly take risks.

But even so, with Barron's network in England, it is not too difficult to obtain some mutual fund investment.

Once his Athena Fund can make stable profits and get on the right track, I'm afraid there will be a huge influx of funds.

According to Barron's arrangement, after the completion of its mathematical model, the current Athena Fund will be led by five fund analysts, including Li Qing, to lead their respective teams, each responsible for US$50 million in funds, in different locations. Conduct quantitative transactions on financial investment products.

The income of these five groups will be ranked regularly, and the top-ranked group will be able to obtain a larger share of the subsequent funds added.

Among the five groups, in addition to the five analysts, members with outstanding performance will also have the ability to form separate groups, thereby obtaining an exclusive share of funds and the qualifications to join the competition...

The bonuses of these groups will naturally be linked to their final rate of return. The groups that have always been ranked at the bottom are also at risk of being eliminated eventually.

It can be said that this kind of competition is very cruel, but the financial industry itself is such a place. Incomes that are much higher than those in other industries are not so easy to obtain.

Under such internal competition, they continued to improve their mathematical models, eventually allowing Athena Fund to achieve stable and high profits.