Hedge funds were challenged by last year’s market volatility due to inflation, major geopolitical events, interest rate hikes, energy prices and more, and these challenges are here to stay. Investing in the current environment, with its uncertainties, requires agility and the ability to assess and act on new opportunities faster. As stated in the Hedgeweek 2023 outlook, constant uncertainty can indeed generate opportunities and favors diversification and pure alpha strategies. Detecting, assessing and capturing these opportunities faster than others will be critical to stay on top of the game. In the past two years, risk keeps shifting dramatically across asset classes. Now more than ever, accurately assessing risk and P&L during volatility shifts is key to efficient deployment of capital and maximizing returns or minimizing losses.
The challenge of analyzing large amounts of data
Hedge funds also face the challenges of managing and analyzing large amounts of data in and/or near real-time, but these difficulties are compounded by the fact that many managers still rely on manual processes and outdated systems. With the volatile market conditions caused by factors such as pandemic, looming economic recessions, and geopolitical tensions, there is a growing need for hedge funds to adopt modern technologies that give them a competitive advantage.
Backtesting candidate models for validity
To succeed in today’s financial landscape, hedge funds need to be nimble and responsive, with access to vast data sets covering long time horizons and a wide range of risk factors. This requires rapid construction, testing, validation, and tuning of new models to capture returns when new market conditions arise. Backtesting candidate models before launching them is a computationally expensive exercise that can be significantly improved upon with better software solutions for automation, data aggregation and validation of results, which enables faster and more accurate assessment of investment opportunities while saving time and infrastructure spendings to run these calculations.
The ability to capitalize on market opportunities faster and easier
Fortunately, there are a range of modern solutions available today that can help hedge funds meet these needs. Solutions such as ActiveViam’s Atoti provides an end-to-end data analytics platform to ensure accuracy, speed and reduce manual processes. With the right technology in place, hedge funds can capitalize on short-term opportunities while minimizing risks in a constantly evolving marketplace.A recent case study highlights the importance of agility in the financial markets. Recently, a U.S.based high-frequency trading company aimed to outperform its competition by improving their ability to swiftly and accurately spot market opportunities and capitalize on them. Recognizing that these windows for potential profits close quickly, the company needed an effective solution to analyze vast amounts of data immediately and efficiently.
The implementation of ActiveViam’s Atoti allowed the company to analyze data in the most granular details, giving its quants and traders immediate response time for their analytics needs across more than 2 years of data. It has led to potentially higher returns and more efficient execution of market strategies almost immediately.
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