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What I enjoy most about Koch Quantitative Trading is the tremendous growth opportunity available and disciplined approach we take to achieve that growth. The growth opportunities at KQT are just incredible. I used to run a small hedge fund, and there were so many obstacles to growth. I was constantly trying to raise additional capital, put the proper infrastructure in place, and deal with multiple investors. At KQT, I can focus solely on developing good strategies and ways to grow the business. In addition, the ability to leverage all of the resources of a large company to develop a world class infrastructure, provides all the capabilities needed to achieve our growth. So how do we go about achieving that growth? We are very fact-based and disciplined users of the scientific method. I find this approach extremely empowering to a researcher. There is no story telling and nothing is personal. If you have a good idea and can develop a hypothesis of why and when it should work, you can develop a model and test that idea. You can then objectively see if your experiments confirm or refute your hypothesis. This allows us to have fact-based discussions with our colleagues about the findings and discuss ways to improve our understanding of the model. The feedback is practically immediate. Once we think we understand the idea and are comfortable that we cannot disprove it, we can put dollars in the market right away. The market will usually tell us very quickly if our model has merit or not. Humility is essential. The nature of our research is that a good portion of the ideas that we have do not turn into tradable models for one reason or another. It is essential to not get distracted by these “failures” and to approach the next idea with as much vigor as the first. So what does it take? To be a good researcher at KQT all you need is an inquisitive and open mind, a good problem solving mentality, comfort with technology (you can’t escape it) and a healthy dose of humility to accept constructive feedback on your ideas from your colleagues and the market. |