Two Sigma

Two Sigma Investments is a New York City-based hedge fund that uses a variety of technological methods, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and distributed computing, for its trading strategies.[3] The firm is run by John Overdeck and David Siegel.[3][4]

This article is about Two Sigma Investments LP. For use of the Greek letter sigma (σ) in statistics, see Standard deviation.

Two Sigma Investments
Private
IndustryHedge fund
Founded2001 (2001)
Founders
HeadquartersNew York, New York, U.S.
ProductsHedge fund
AUMUS$ 60 billion[1]
Number of employees
1500 (2018)[2]
Websitewww.twosigma.com

History

Two Sigma Investments was founded in 2001 by John Overdeck, David Siegel and Mark Pickard.[3][5] Siegel is a computer science Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held the position of Chief Information Officer for D. E. Shaw & Co. prior to starting Two Sigma. Overdeck is an International Mathematical Olympiad Silver Medalist who subsequently studied mathematics at Stanford University and then rose to the position of Managing Director at D. E. Shaw prior to leaving to co-found Two Sigma.[6] Pickard served as the President of the firm from its inception until his retirement in 2006.[7]

According to Two Sigma, the firm's name was chosen to reflect the duality of the word sigma. A lower case sigma, σ, designates the volatility of an investment's return over a given benchmark, and an upper case sigma, Σ, denotes sum. By adding together the volatilities of individual positions measured against the benchmark, Two Sigma can amplify forecast signals, the company's website says.[7]

In October 2013, Two Sigma Private Investments announced that it was joining with Stephen Hannahs to form Wings Capital Partners, a commercial aviation private equity, investment, advisory and financing company.[8] In July 2014, it was announced that Simon Yates, Citigroup's global head of equity derivative sales and trading, left the bank to join Two Sigma.[9][10]

In 2016, Two Sigma Investments ranked 11th on Penta's Top 100 Hedge Funds.[11]

As of early 2017, Two Sigma had used crowdsourcing options to find trading signals.[12] By March 2017, the fund was running a competition on Kaggle to code a trading algorithm.[13]

The fund managed around $8 billion in November 2011, $23 billion in October 2014, and $32 billion by the end of 2015.[14][3][15][16] As of October 2017, the fund had assets reaching more than $50 billion.[17] In May 2019, the fund had assets reaching $60 billion.[18]

Technology

At the end of 2016, Two Sigma Investments introduced an artificial intelligence challenge called Halite. Halite is a programming game inviting coding enthusiasts to build smart bots whose goal is to gain control of a virtual grid.[19][20][21] Due to the success of Halite I, Two Sigma decided to develop a second season of Halite called Halite II. This ran from October 2017 to January 2018, and in this version players competed for control of planets using ships.[22]

Fund information

Two Sigma has been noted in the business press for its unusually high rate of return, comparable to its older and more mature competitors D. E. Shaw & Co. and Renaissance Technologies.[3][23] In October 2014, Two Sigma had raised $3.3 billion for a macro hedge fund in one of the largest new pools of such capital raised since the 2008 financial crisis.[15]

There are a few specialized divisions which focus on private investments, venture capital investments (with a focus on companies operating in the realm of data science), advising institutional clients, and running a high frequency broker-dealer.[24][25][15]

Controversies

Accessing and duplicating confidential information

In February 2014, Forbes reported that former Two Sigma employee Kang Gao, aged 29, was prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney and is accused of using a remote-access device to view Two Sigma's proprietary trading models and emailing this information to his personal email account, lifting quantitative trading strategies, trading models, a marketing presentation, and a scientific white paper.[26] The case, New York. v. Kang Gao, led to Gao receiving 8 months in jail as of October 2014.[26] In February 2015, Gao pleaded guilty to "illegally accessing and duplicating proprietary and confidential information related to the firm's trading methods."[27][28]

References
  1. Taub, Stephen. "Inside the Geeky, Quirky, and Wildly Successful World of Quant Shop Two Sigma". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  2. "About Two Sigma". Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  3. Vardi, Nathan (11 July 2014). "Two Sigma Investments Is Having a Great Year And Becoming A Hedge Fund Powerhouse". Forbes. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  4. The World's 100 richest Hedge Funds, Bloomberg Markets
  5. "Two Sigma Investments". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  6. "About". Two Sigma Investments. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  7. "About Two Sigma". www.twosigma.com. Two Sigma.
  8. "Stephen Hannahs, Two Sigma Private Investments Join to Create Wings Capital Partners, a Commercial Aviation Private Equity, Investment, Advisory and Financing Company". Yahoo! Finance. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  9. Dugan, Kevin (2 July 2014). "Citi loses equity-derivatives chief to Two Sigma Investments". New York Post. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  10. "Citi Equity Derivatives Head Yates Said to Join Two Sigma". 2 July 2014 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  11. "Penta Top 100 Hedge Funds". Barron's. 17 June 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  12. Wigglesworth, Robin (17 October 2017). "Cohen-backed Quantopian starts fund for outside investors". The Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  13. Wigglesworth, Robin (8 March 2017). "Hedge funds adopt novel methods to hunt down new tech talent". The Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  14. Copeland, Rob (1 November 2011). "Two Sigma readies new global equity fund". Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  15. Foxman, Simone (30 October 2014). "Two Sigma Raises $3.3 Billion for New Macro Hedge Fund". Business Week.
  16. Vardi, Nathan. "Top Quant Hedge Funds Stand Out With Good 2015". Forbes. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  17. Wigglesworth, Robin (23 October 2017). "Two Sigma rapidly rises to top of quant hedge fund world". The Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  18. Saacks, Bradley. "'It's a cat-and-mouse game': The head of technology at $60 billion hedge fund Two Sigma explains why cybersecurity is a bigger challenge than AI". Business Insider. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  19. "Two Sigma Announces Public Launch of Halite, A.I. Coding Game". Cornell Tech. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  20. "Halite: An AI Programming Challenge | Hacker News". news.ycombinator.com. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  21. "Introducing Halite: Our Limited Release AI Challenge". Two Sigma. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  22. "Halite II". Halite. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  23. "Two Sigma Investments/Two Sigma Advisers". Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  24. "Two Sigma Private Investments". Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  25. "Two Sigma Ventures". Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  26. Bishop, Stewart (14 October 2014). "Ex-Two Sigma Analyst Can't Dodge IP Trial, But Bail Is Cut". law360.
  27. "DA VANCE: KANG GAO PLEADS GUILTY TO COPYING CONFIDENTIAL TRADING INFORMATION FROM HIS FORMER EMPLOYER" (Press release). The New York County District Attorney's Office. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  28. Dolmetsch, Chris (24 February 2015). "Former Two Sigma Analyst Gao Pleads Guilty to Software Theft". New York: Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
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