In this episode, we get an exciting behind-the-scenes story of one of the most famous systematic trading firms of its time, AHL. Our guest is one of the firms founders and takes us from the company’s birth to its acquisition by Man Group. We also discuss how he started his next company, Aspect Capital, how he creates his trading models, and how to build and run a successful multi-billion trend-following firm. This episode is full of insights and stories that you won’t hear elsewhere.

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In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

About Quantitative Investment research.
About Martin’s background in physics.
Martin’s time at his first company, AHL and how it had a profound effect on the whole managed futures industry.
How Martin met his future AHL co-founders at university.
Why AHL was a happy accident.
How he met his friend Michael Adam and went to work for his dad after studying in Oxford.
Martin started working for Michael’s dad as well, investigate many trading models and distilling them into key concepts.
In 1987 they founded AHL with David Harding after leaving Michael’s father’s business.
They started with $100k of investor money that bridged their split from the family business.
About MINT, a pioneering systematic CTA in the early 80s.
How they tried to articulate their trading patterns in the form of a computer trading model.
What the initial AHL model looked like back then.
How they over optimized in the beginning and had to learn things as they went along.
How AHL got involved with Man Group.
The skills that each of the 3 Founders brought to the table.
In 1989 Man Group took a stake in AHL.
How the Man buy changed their business.
What happened after Man’s IPO.
How Michael, David, and Martin went their own ways after they left AHL.
How Martin started Aspect Capital with Anthony Todd, Eugine Lambert and Michael Adam.
Why he parted ways with his other AHL founders initially and did not start AHL 2.0.
What he does when he is not working.
Aspect was founded on bringing managed futures to the institutional side of things.
What it looks like running 100-person+ organization.
What he looks for when adding new researchers and staff to his team.
The lessons he has learned and the mistakes he’s made in building a culture of an organization.
About their track record and how it should be viewed.
Martin’s persistence in using trend following models.
How his models have changed and how he has dealt with risk management over the years.
What it means to change his models from a binary implementation to an analog implementation.

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Learn more about AHL.
Find out more about the MAN group.

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