French systematic hedge fund Quantology launches Nasdaq-focused US equity strategy

Submitted By Hugh Leask | 05/07/2021 - 7:54am -

Quantology Capital Management, a Paris-based systematic long/short equity-focused hedge fund firm, has launched a new strategy, Quantology US Equity.

The new fund aims to outperform the Nasdaq 100 Index, described by Quantology as “the best performer and the hardest index to outperform over the last 10 years.”

The launch comes as the firm’s Quantology Absolute Return strategy ended the first half of 2021 in negative territory, down just over 1 per cent having lost 0.5 per cent in June.

In a strategy update, Quantology said its flagship systematic long/short US-focused market neutral equity hedge fund, which trades Nasdaq and NYSE-listed stocks long and short, was impacted as dispersion loomed across trend-following strategies, with patterns shifting “from one week to another”.

However, one of its key longs, Nvidia Corp – a California-based computer systems and graphics provider for gaming and other sectors – rallied by almost 30 per cent in June, following its stock split announcement.  It added that momentum is improving on growth stocks while deteriorating on old-economy,

The computer-based fund uses a market-agnostic, process-based approach to generate returns from behavioural finance indicators, share price trends, and other stock signals within quarterly earnings data from companies. The strategy finished 2020 up some 6 per cent for the year.

Speaking at the recent hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit about the growing importance and advances in data among hedge funds, portfolio manager Julien Messias – who co-founded Quantology in 2013 along with chairman Vincent Fourcaut – described algorithms as the “motor engine” and data as the “gas”.

“Without the appropriate gas, the car won’t move. You can have a very powerful algorithm, but if you don’t have the right data, you won’t go anywhere,” Messias said.

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