Quant Strategies: From Niche to Mainstream

Trend-Following, Factor Investing and Other Quant Strategies

Quant-based financial products have developed from a niche sector of the asset management industry into a diverse set of strategies for sophisticated investors who wish to diversify their portfolios or to gain access to exotic opportunities. This has, in part, been driven by the increasing complexity of financial markets, with managers employing advanced technologies and modelling to look for alpha. Our selection offers a range of research papers and podcasts on various quant-based strategies, such as trend-following and factor investing.

Gaining Momentum: Where next for trend-following? (Man Group, Jun 2022)

Strong trends that are sensitive to macro-economic forces, like inflation, have boosted the performance of trend-following strategies. But is this likely to continue?

Credit Factor Investing With Machine Learning Techniques (Amundi)

For compliance reasons, this paper is NOT accessible in the United States

Amundi has used tree-based machine learning algorithms to study the impact of multiple factors on investing in fixed income markets.

100 Years of Multi-Asset Trend-Following (Quantpedia, 2022)

Trend-following approaches aim to leverage the market momentum by either going long when the market goes up or going short when investors sell.

An Index Approach to Factor Investing in India (S&P Dow Jones Indices, 2022)

Factor investing is a quant approach to stock picking. It looks at quantifiable – as opposed to qualitative – aspects of a company which investors can analyse mathematically.

Podcast: The Evolution of Multi-factor Quant Strategies (Money Maze, 2022)

Multi-factor quant strategies are now much more accepted by investors as a potential asset in their portfolio. Historically however, this has not always been the case.

High Frequency Traders and Liquidity (2022)

High frequency trading, or HFT, sometimes gets a bad press. However, HFT may provide unexpected improvements to market liquidity.

Using Momentum to Find Value (Alpha Architect, 2022)

Two of the most important factors in stock selection are 'value' and 'momentum'. This unique paper looks at both factors side by side.

Podcast: Trend following, crypto modelling and more (RCM Alternatives)

Crypto assets and decentralised finance are becoming more mainstream. Investors are already applying quant methods such as modelling or signal detection to assess this space.

Trend Following: Timing fast and slow trends (Alpha Architect, 2022)

Trend-following is not as easy as it sounds. Complex thinking backed by quantitative models is required to time the market and spot a trend.