BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Jan 23, 2013) - Quantopian, which is building the world's first browser-based algorithmic trading platform, today announced that it has emerged from beta to provide the tools, capabilities and support needed to create and optimize trading algorithms in an open and transparent environment. Quantopian makes it simple for anyone with a mind for finance to develop algorithms and reap the benefits of quantitative finance for themselves -- a feat that was previously rendered nearly impossible by the limitations of data access, trading infrastructure and arduous initial coding requirements. The company also revealed that it has received funding from Spark Capital and GETCO.
"For way too long, Wall Street has kept quantitative finance to itself by hoarding information and providing little transparency or accountability," said John 'Fawce' Fawcett, founder and chief executive officer of Quantopian. "At Quantopian, our goal is to dispel that secrecy and grow the quant community by a thousand fold. We welcome talented people from around the world into our community by providing access to the data, infrastructure and mentorship necessary to participate."
The Quantopian platform provides free tools, backtesting data and an engaged community where members can discuss concepts, challenges and execution with peers and experts to encourage people to expand their understanding of quantitative finance.
"Algorithms play an increasingly interesting and important role in many areas," said Andrew Parker, principal at Spark Capital. "For most people they're not well understood. What makes Quantopian so interesting is that they're connecting large new classes of programmers, scientists and investors with the ability to create and take advantage of the most valuable algorithms. It's very exciting stuff that will have a market-changing impact."
Quantopian's core values are delivered through the company's commitment to three critical elements:
- Democratizing Education - Quantopian encourages people to expand their understanding of quantitative finance by providing free, accessible educational resources, as well as a community of peers and experts.
- Accelerating Innovation - Quantopian provides the tools, data and infrastructure so that quants can be up and running in minutes rather than months. This dramatically simplified process lets users focus on what's important -- their algorithm -- rather than annoying and time consuming background requirements.
- Protecting Intellectual Property - Quantopian is committed to protecting the intellectual property of its members, whose ideas are valuable. Members retain full ownership of their intellectual property with Quantopian.
"Before Quantopian, you had to do so many things before you could even start looking at algorithms -- build a backtester, find and pay for a data source, clean it, vet it -- and you had to do all of the work alone," said Jean Bredeche, co-founder and chief technology officer at Quantopian. "We've taken care of all that and created an easy-to-use environment that provides instant feedback, so the development process is actually interesting again -- and we're passionate about building this out even further."
The Quantopian community is a unique and growing group of people who believe that open access to data and tools can revolutionize the way people invest, and the company's Zipline backtester is the industry's only open source backtesting tool. These tools and resources for algorithm development and testing will continue to grow as Quantopian builds toward the introduction of live trading later in 2013.
A video introducing Quantopian is available here.
About Quantopian
Quantopian is building the world's first browser-based algorithmic trading platform. The company gives quants the tools and support they need to learn, create, explore and reap the benefits of quantitative finance. With Quantopian, users can be operational in minutes rather than months. The company provides robust foundational technology for creating algorithms and unfettered access to a decade's worth of trading data for backtesting. Quantopian is also an engaged community where people can discuss concepts, processes and performance and learn from peers and experts. The result is a better way to understand -- and profit from -- quantitative trading. Quantopian is headquartered in Boston. Learn more at www.quantopian.com, or visit us at the Quantopian blog, or follow us on Twitter @quantopian.