"Trade Like A Chimp! Unleash Your Inner Primate" by Andreas Clenow

Talk by Andreas Clenow, CIO Acies Asset Management. From QuantCon NYC 2016.
It is a long established fact that a reasonably well behaved chimp throwing darts at a list of stocks can outperform most professional asset managers. It is less known why this is the case. While there would be obvious advantages with hiring chimps over hedge fund traders, such as lower salaries and calmer tempers, there are also a few practical obstacles to such hiring practices. For those asset management firms unable to retain the services of a cooperative primate, a random number generator may serve as a reasonable approximation of their skills.
The fact of the matter is that even a random number generator can, and will, outperform practically all mutual funds. Such random strategies may seem like a joke, and perhaps they are, but if a joke can outperform industry professionals we have to stop and ask some hard questions.
When designing investment strategies, it can be very useful to have an understanding of random strategies, how they work and what kind of results they are likely to yield. Given that random strategies perform quite well over time, they can act as a valid benchmark. After all, if your own investment approach fails to outperform a random strategy, you may as well outsource your quant modeling to the Bronx Zoo.
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[@olivert.7177]

One of the best talks I watched this year.

[@Andreas-gh6is]

The initial strategy of selling everything at regular intervals runs the risk of getting "sniped".