Thomas Starke Interview - Chat With Traders Episode 147

Hello everyone, how’s it going? Let’s get started on episode 147 today with my honored guest Dr. Thomas Starke.

He has a PhD in Physics. His long list of credentials include lecturing at the University of Oxford, designing microchips and working as an engineer for Rolls Royce. He then applied his experience and knowledge of modelling to the financial markets. His new career includes working at a fund and joining a well-known Sydney prop trading firm. He’s recently left that role where he was a Quantitative developer and trader.

Today’s guest was really great to chat with. We talked about quantitative trading of course as well as strategy development and robustness. We also dive deep into his interest (or obsession) with quantum computing and rise in popularity of using artificial intelligence. I’m pretty sure that starts around the 50 minute mark.

As you’ll learn throughout this interview we talk about quite a lot of resources, books and links. Don’t worry, I’ll list them all in the shownotes at chatwithtraders.com/147. If you head over there, you can always support the podcast by purchasing a Chat With Traders Shirt.

I want to thank Kellie Scott at Trading Technologies for introducing the both of us and helping to arrange this interview with Dr. Thomas.

Without further ado, here is Thomas Starke.

What’s Covered in This Interview:

The advantages to using upside factor modelling, including an example of a single factor
How a trader can use alternative data to solve problems to determine whether a factor has any merit.
A framework for strategy development traders can use which involves testing correlations between test and train data sets as well as various methods for checking robustness.
What the rise of quantum computing and artificial intelligence means for the average trader. Should they care or just continue with what they’re already doing?