
The Robots Are Coming for Wall Street - Futurebot
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/the-robots-are-coming-for-wall-street.html
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chollida1
I guess this is a PR piece? Lots of companies are in this space, you could
argue this is what Palantir does.

It used to be before computers that someone had to go to the microfiche to
pull the time series data required to analyze what the markets did during
certain periods. Nowadays Bloomberg or Tompson Reuters will do this for you
without requiring you to even start excel.

So I guess "robots" are coming in the same way that computers previously came
for data entry and retrieval people. The analyst position has been shrinking
since 2008 from my experience. This makes sense when you consider the
Investment banking funnel.

\- 1000's of analysts get hired on 2 year terms each year. This is often why
you'll see people who spent 2 year stints with Investment banks and then left.
It's really hard to get hired as an Associate and the analyst position doesn't
really carry anywhere near the "prestige" of being a full time Associate. It's
close to the equivalent of saying you did a co-op term with Google. You did
work for Google but you were never a full time employee who went through the
entire interview process and were deemed worthy.

\- 10%-20% become full time positions (Associates) after a couple of years.

\- 10% of those become VP's after 3-4 years. Most people cap out here.

\- 10% of those become Managing directors(there are several tiers here, and
you'll run a specific book and have your own team and pnl if you get this
far).

Since investment banks have been shrinking head count its not surprising that
they are looking for ways to decrease the number of analysts they hire. It's
the one position where people don't really give it any respect.

I've never actually seen their product but if it works they'll have no problem
making money. The biggest single expense most funds I talk to have, is
building out the technical infrastructure to aggregate data in an easy to use
method. Jim Simmons of Renaissance Technologies fame was quoted as saying
their single most important piece of technology was their back-testing and
data aggregation framework.

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caminante
In learning about IB funnel, I've noticed that almost everyone KNOWS these
stats yet everyone thinks he'll be the exception.

To your points and for anyone interested about IB, here's a lecture[1] (part
3/5) by Anton Kreil -- a trader and TV personality in the UK. He walks through
the IB funnel on the secondary markets side, including the org chart, the
"catches" in compensation, cost of living trade-offs, etc. The shoulder videos
are worth watching as he discusses the structural decline at IB (secondary
markets side) due to regulation and offers suggestions like learning
programming if you want to survive as a trader ;-).

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OReolQm34TQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OReolQm34TQ)

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applecore
Is this a submarine PR piece for Kensho? The company is mentioned over thirty
times in the article.

~~~
CyberDildonics
Half of hacker news is submarine pieces, it's ridiculous.

~~~
johansch
I think this is because tech news sucks at the moment, rather than people
submitting stuff that pitches their product.

There is just very little independent quality tech journalism being done at
the moment.

~~~
caminante
This quote from the article talks directly to your point:

    
    
      Nadler closed his laptop. The whole process had taken just a few minutes.
      Generating a similar query without automation, he said, ‘‘would have 
      taken days, probably 40 man-hours, from people who were making an 
      average of $350,000 to $500,000 a year.’’

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cylinder
The newest clickbait trend is to call software "robots."

~~~
caminante
Haha! Though, in the pantheon of co-opted words, it's not on the level of
"drones" or "hoverboards."

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infinite8s
Such sophisticated back-end technology, and sadly the interface still requires
mashing ctrl-R repeatedly to see the latest updates! Having worked in
financial technology, I've seen this lack of consideration on human-computer
interaction first hand. Much of the information displays are not much more
sophisticated than the ticker tapes of the 80 and 90s.

Edit: On an unrelated note, I'm surprised that their reports take so long
after the announcement. 5 minutes after the release most of the information
has already been priced into the markets.

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robocaptain
As someone who has watched class after class of analysts put together 50-page
pitch books of which <5 will be read, the day of the robots cannot come soon
enough.

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AnimalMuppet
I don't know. A robot might put together a 500-page pitch book, because the
robot doesn't understand the concept of "boredom".

~~~
vicda
But when that pitch is being interpreted by another program wouldn't that make
the most sense?

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Ah, I hadn't considered that aspect of it. I was presuming that the robot was
writing for humans...

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ImTalking
Good article. Although the danger is that, if everyone is using this type of
software, this creates a herd mentality whereby everyone is doing the same
thing. The stock market only works correctly if there is diversity and
independence of opinion... things that are slowly decreasing in this instant-
access global wired world. To me, this means that there will always be a place
for the out-of-the-box thinker.

