Summer Intern Recruitment Season Kick Off with CMU MSCF

It’s officially intern hunting season. After a bumper summer of interns at Quantbot, our office is looking a little empty now and needs to be filled by..more interns! We started our Fall recruitment with our good friends at CMU’s MSCF program. First, at the end of August, we participated for the first time in their annual NYC Trek, where small groups visited various financial companies throughout the city. After hearing a company presentation, the students then had a chance to speak one-on-one with senior quant researchers at Quantbot in smaller breakout rooms. It was a great chance for a section of the incoming MSCF class to visit our new office, ask questions to actual quants about the job, and finish off with some pizza.

However, we didn’t want to leave the rest of the class without an impression of Quantbot, so we traveled down to their campus on Broad Street to give a company presentation to the whole incoming class. Ashar Maboob, our CIO, started with a run down of the company and what it takes to be a successful quant at Quantbot. Our second speaker, Ricky Der, Director of Quantitative Research, gave a deft overview of the quant research process from alpha generation to trade execution, and the pitfalls along the way. Katharina Botlo, our Intern Program Coordinator finished off the presentation by highlighting Quantbot’s intern program and the opportunities for them to apply for summer 2024. We always enjoy starting off our intern recruitment at CMU and this year was no different!

Ashar, our CIO, giving the introduction to Quantbot
Katharina, our Intern Program Coordinator, speaking about our intern program and the opportunities for 2024.

Quantbot hosts NYC Quantum Computing Meet up

On Wednesday, September 13 Quantbot had the pleasure of hosting the NYC Quantum Computing group in our office for their monthly meeting.

Vinod Menon, this month’s presenter, gave a presentation on “Half-light half-matter quasiparticles (polaritons) as a platform for Hamiltonian simulators and quantum optical nonlinearity”.

Tom Crimi, Quantbot’s CTO, giving the opening talk about Quantbot.

It was a great night of discussion with great minds. We look forward to hosting future events in our space as we continue to grow in our space.

Vinod Menon is a Professor of Physics at the City College of New York and doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America (now Optica) and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer in Photonics (2018-2020). More details about his group can be found at: https://lanmp.org/

And for those curious as to the content of the presentation:
Abstract: Strong light-matter interaction results in the formation of half-light half-matter quasiparticles called polaritons that take on the properties of both its constituents. In this talk I will first introduce the concept of polariton formation in low-dimensional semiconductors. Following this, I will discuss the formation of Bose Einstein like condensates at room temperature using polaritons formed in organic molecules. Approaches to create condensate lattices in such systems and their potential application as Hamiltonian simulators will also be presented. In the second part of the talk, I will present our recent work on polaritons in atomically thin (2D) materials and their potential to reach quantum nonlinearity. Finally, I will discuss our quantum education efforts at the City College of New York (CCNY) including the development of undergraduate level quantum optics lab and the potential for outreach efforts at the high school level using these systems.

Squash is Back!

On July 13, Quantbot had our first squash night since 2019 at Open Squash. With such a wide range of experience, we luckily had professional trainers coaching us through the basics. We love friendly competition and playing squash was no exception! In the end, we had a great time and are already looking forward to our next squash night.

Let the coaching start!
Trying it out
Going for it!

Quantbot Intern Game Night

Last week, the new Quantbot office hosted a game night for the first time. Employees and interns enjoyed a night of pizza and poker, with some FIFA thrown in on the side. It was a great event getting to mingle with our interns while also enjoying some fun competition. We are already looking forward to planning our next game night as the summer days continue.

Just some of our NY interns!
FIFA time!

Did Someone Say the Joy of Sake?

It’s the most sake-iest time of the year. Quantbot once again enjoyed delicious food, a preponderance of sake, and wonderful cocktails (sake in a negroni, who knew?!) at the annual Joy of Sake on Friday, June 16th. Luckily many of our summer interns had the opportunity to come, along with many of the yearly regulars. We love attending this event every year and can’t wait for the next. Kanpai!

Quantbot’s First JPM 5k!

Quantbot ran its first long-awaited JPM Corporate Challenge! On June 1, 12 of our employees laced up their running shoes and took to the trails of Central Park to join the thousands of runners, joggers, and walkers participating in the 5k. The weather and the vibes were great even when we fought our way through the Harlem hills! We can’t wait to run it again and set some new PRs next year!

Some of our proud 5k finishers!

Annual Company Dinner to Celebrate an Eventful Year

What do cocktails, lobsters, and speeches all have in common? That’s right, they were all at Quantbot’s annual company dinner! Hosted this year at Milos Estiatorio, the Quantbot NY office and our summer intern cohort celebrated another successful and productive year at Quantbot. Over courses of delicious Greek delights, we toasted many highlights from the year so far, including moving to our new NYC office, opening one in Miami, and welcoming the largest intern class we’ve ever had. Cheers to fourteen years and counting!

Movin’ On Up to 5th Ave!

That’s right, Quantbot has moved to a new office space! When just a short time ago we were playing musical desks in an office that couldn’t grow in tandem with our hiring rate, now we have a bright new space that can not only fit all of us (including our many summer interns), but provides plenty of room for future joiners. Overlooking the NYPL and Bryant Park in the heart of Midtown, the new Quantbot headquarters are spacious and comfortable. We even have an outdoor patio for sipping post-work drinks on sunny summer afternoons!

An NYC miracle: outdoor space!
Our stunning view of the New York Public Library!
The new kitchen; bring on the snacks!

PhD Datathon Co-hosted by Quantbot Technologies

Back on April 14, Quantbot Technologies, along with Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and Code Willing, had the pleasure of hosting a PhD-focused Datathon, featuring participating students from across the United States. The event started with presentations from the three data vendors that freely provided their data for the Datathon: Estimize, Wall Street Horizon, and RedGraphs. Each team was then given 3 hours to run backtests, using the data provided by the vendors, to generate alpha and develop an out-of-sample strategy.

Paul White, Quantbot Technologies CEO, gives opening remarks to the group
Ashar Mahboob, Quantbot Technologies CIO, watches as Schonfeld Strategic Advisors CEO, Ryan Tolkin, starts the competition portion of the event.

Each team was provided with a senior mentor. Two of Quantbot’s researchers, Keywan and Zihao, each mentored a team where they dispensed expert advice on how the students should build and tweak their strategies. The most successful strategy across several parameters was deemed the winner. Congratulations to CWIQ team Sim for your win!

Keywan, Quantbot researcher, mentors his team during the competition.
Zihao, the other Quantbot mentor and researcher, advises his team during the competition
The winning team: CWIQ Sim
A big thank you to the team at CodeWilling for making this highlight video!

Quant Portfolio Manager Meetup Hosted by Schonfeld

Due to our continued relationship with Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, we were graciously invited to attend their first Quant Portfolio Manager Meetup and recruiting event on November 17, 2022 as one of the Portfolio Managers of interest. We had a wonderful time meeting some of the brightest and most promising future quants in NYC, while also promoting our intern program. Judging from this first event in NYC, our recruitment partnership with Schonfeld will continue to be a success, and we look forward to possibly welcoming some of these candidates to Quantbot as interns!

Ashar, Paul, and Katharina had a great night attending the meetup!