I wish this post can be a starting point for debating about some fundamental aspects of a business area like the one in which Quantiacs operates.

1. How do you protect the IP of a strategy's author? How can a quant who spent hours and hours developing a good strategy be sure that you won't look at its code?

2. Is the 10% on the net profits just for 1 year? What happens if you use more than 1 year?

I fear that issues like the ones above(expecially the IP related one) could prevent top notch authors from participating in the competition.

I also have the feat that the business could not be sustainable in the long term. Quantopian, which seemed to have a business model really similar to Quantiacs, has closed down and from rumors, opinions I gathered here and there I.P. protection was the main issue for talented authors.

I think you will have to give ground on this front, maybe by accepting somehow signals generated by cloud systems set up by authors or other systems that can 100% safeguard the I.P.

And the fact that you end paying royalties after one year is also crucial. If I designed a very good, long term strategy why shouldn't I get rewarded long time?

Great reply @support ! It really addresses many of my concerns in a good way.

Thanks

Mine's is just an idea, but maybe for IP protection one can think about putting in charge a third entity, such as Amazon or Google or similar firms with cloud activities and upload the source code there, such an "escrow" system....

Hi!
I'm wondering if it's possible to import external datasets, like for instance datasets in .CSV we can find on Quandl or something like it.

Or if it's even possible to stream them "live", update them day by day with the latest day 's data, so even in the live trading phase (in the case a strategy is selected and wins the contest), it can trade consistently.

Thanks

@support ok, now things are more clean

@support fantastic answers! Really on target and appropriate! I couldn't be more satisfied!

@magenta-grimer trend following strategy created on 27 nov 2020

how many strategies can a participant submit for q17 live trading phase?
15 or 50?

@jeppe_and use reserve!

Hi!

I think it would be useful to have a leaderboard with the current strategies for Q16, just as we had for Q15 back in April or May or March 2021....

Thx

@support ok, I understand.

So basically if I win the first prize and my strategy "only" generates linearly 1% per quarter, I have guaranteed payouts for one year ( four quarters).
But after one year you might say "Look, your returns even if positive are too low, we don't want to renew your strategy and so we won't run it anymore".
And so even if I won the contest and generated positive returns, after one year the fees you are rewarding me with are over.

Okay..now I understand and it makes sense.

If It's possible and it's not something secret and under NDA, how many strategies of past Quantiacs competitions are you still running?

Let's say of Q3...after so many years, are there still strategies running ? Are the authors still collecting fees?

What's the average returns of these old strategies over the years? On average, how many years are strategies in the top 3 running?

Can you provide some statistics?

Thanks

hi!

In the email announcing Q18 there's written :

"About the Q18 Contest
Quantiacs allocates 2M USD to this contest. The capital will be allocated to the seven quants whose strategies achieved the highest Sharpe ratio during the Live Contest Period which will run from October 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023.

The quants will earn 10% of the profits generated by their systems for 1 year without any downside risk for them. The earnings for the previous contests can be viewed in the leaderboard. Take a look also at the interviews with the winners which we published in the forum."

Can you explain a little more the 1 year thing?

Let's say I win the first prize, let's say that it generates constantly every 3 months 5% return FOREVER linearly. Does it mean that I will get payed 10% of the returns minus trading expenses and so on for just 1 year, and then I receive no more royalties? Like, on 1 M USD, 4000$ per quarter ( let's say as above 10% on 5% minus trading expenses) for one year and then nothing?
So like 16000$ and then nothing?

Thanks

how many strategies can a participant submit for q17 live trading phase?
15 or 50?

@support what you say is really interesting..it means that one can expect to receive an allocation even outside the contest, if the performance is interesting...
How much capital do you have to allocate?
So far you seem to be running like 34 M USD in strategies since Quantiacs started....is that correct?
will you be able to allocate 5M USD if you find the "correct" strategy?

@magenta-grimer It means that if I really write a good strategy, I can receive fees for many years, too

@support ok, now things are more clean

@magenta-grimer Let's suppose my strategy has stable, positive returns, like 15% yearly and sharpe over 1.5. Will you pay me for one year only based on its performance ?

After one year you will stop using it and won't pay me anymore, based on the algo performance as always, or will you still use it and don't pay anymore since more than 1 year has passed

@support okay, but I still can't fully understand.

You say 1 year. Does it mean that after one year you won't invest more in a strategy and the author won't receive any "royalty" anymore?

Could you please explain this ? I can't understand it by reading your legal bindings

@support ok, thanks.

And a bit more color on how long you will keep running the algo and award prizes to the author, in the case, obviously, that it keeps generating positive returns.
For instance now I've a strategy on futures that could receive a 250k allocation.
Let's suppose I actually win that allocation.
Let's suppose the strategy actually generates returns when live traded.

Will you keep awarding me the 10% of the returns even in 2027?
Who can assure me that, if you say me you are no longer running it and so not paying "royalties" to me anymore, you are actually doing so?

Hi!

I think it would be useful to have a leaderboard with the current strategies for Q16, just as we had for Q15 back in April or May or March 2021....

Thx