BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quantopian, a free online platform where more than 85,000 members from 180 countries can create institutional-quality investment algorithms, announced today that it has hired Dragan Skoko as its Head of Trading.
Skoko will lead Quantopian’s trading activities as the company implements and manages investment algorithms created by its community members.
"The execution stage of the investment process is where theory and research intersect with reality," said Jonathan Larkin, Quantopian's Chief Investment Officer. "For an investment firm to succeed at scale, it is essential to excel at this stage. I'm pleased to have Dragan lead trading for Quantopian."
Quantopian gives anyone the ability to create and test investment algorithms -- and be rewarded for their work. Each algorithm on the platform is reviewed and then allocations are selected based on return, risk, style, capacity, and interaction effects. The authors of the selected algorithms receive a share of the profits generated from their investment strategies.
“We are thrilled to add someone with the passion and experience in quantitative trading that Dragan possesses,” said John Fawcett, CEO of Quantopian. “Our primary mission is to bring together talented quants across the globe. Dragan will drive dramatic improvements in our platform, making it better for everyone in our community.”
“Quantopian is reshaping the investment industry by providing a robust online platform for anyone to create investment algorithms,” Skoko said. “I look forward to being a part of this growing organization as it empowers people to use their skills to create new quantitative trading strategies.”
Skoko blends unique backgrounds in FinTech, quantitative investing and institutional trading. He recently served as Head of Trading with Batterymarch Financial Management, overseeing various aspects of portfolio implementation. In that role, he managed traders, middle office and information technology staff. Skoko worked closely with the traders and equity portfolio management teams to improve the portfolio construction and implementation.
He has also served in various roles with Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, PHZ Capital, and ILX Systems.
About Quantopian
Quantopian inspires talented people from around the world to write investment algorithms. Quantopian provides capital, data, and infrastructure to algorithm authors (quants). Quantopian offers license agreements for algorithms that fit its investment strategy, and the licensing authors are paid based on their strategy’s individual performance. Quantopian provides everything a quant needs to create a strategy and profit from it.
Quantopian’s community has doubled year-over-year for the last three years and now numbers over 85,000 members. Quantopian’s members include finance professionals, scientists, developers, and students from 180 countries. The members collaborate online and in person at regional meetups, workshops, and Quantopian’s flagship annual event QuantCon. Quantopian provides its members a research and development platform, which includes US equity pricing and corporate fundamental data for free. Members may also access a fast-growing catalog of premium datasets. To date, more than 3.5 million simulations have been run on Quantopian’s platform. In September 2015, Quantopian began allocating proprietary capital to selected algorithms submitted by its members.
For more information about Quantopian, please visit: https://www.quantopian.com/.
