Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Short, well-written, and interesting.

One question that popped in my mind as I was reading this was, how about alpha, correlation, and volatility in financial markets? Has the behavior of markets changed over time as alpha, correlation, and volatility have become dominant metrics to be chased?




A lot more has changed in the financial markets than just the way perofrmance is measured and which alphas are known.

Some examples (not in chronological order, mostly US equities focused): electronic market makers, electronic order execution (which means large orders are harder to detect now), retail access, the way retail flow is directed around, ZIRP + QE, the rise of indexing, Volcker Rule.

My point is that it would be quite hard to isolate the impact of just how people think of performance.


Thank you. Yes, I agree.

My question was only whether the behavior of the whole system has been shaped by the chasing of these metrics.

Your comment implies that you think the answer is yes, even if you won't venture a guess of the impact of these metrics in dependent of other changes (understandably, in my view; I'm not sure I would venture a guess either).




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: