Quant strategies: the quick and the staid

For many quantitative hedge funds, 2009 was a year to forget. While the average hedgie made around 20 percent for investors, computer-driven strategies ended the year close to flat, according to Hedge Fund Intelligence. Funds using quantitative trading systems account for around a quarter of the $1.6 trillion managed by hedge fund globally. Most of that is invested in stocks, using models that attempt to anticipate share price movements by analysing past trading patterns. A bit less is put to wo...