My name is Kent Peterson. I began my studies in Chinese history, a field that has nothing to do with finance, macroeconomics and capital markets, but became fascinated enough with finance to make it a full time gig. My first job was with a hedge fund that was small and unknown at the time, and later would become one of the largest firms in hedge fund land, Bridgewater Associates. This was my introduction to Alpha. I remained there for 7 years, before moving into the land of Mutual Funds at Columbia Threadneedle, where I served initially as a researcher, and then for most of my 11 year tenure as a Portfolio Manager running quantitative strategies related to derivatives and equities. This was my immersion in Beta. From the beginning until now I have been a “quant.” That means different things to different folks. Quants can do everything from develop hypothetical fair-value models for complex derivatives to probability theory to pure computer programming. My particular quant skills sets lie on the buy side. I try to figure out what will make money in the future using anything that is quantifiable. To me, one off anomalies, ephemeral patterns and bubbles are fascinating, and you will find me writing about them here. But the real value-added in my career is finding things that have worked over and over again consistently for long stretches of time. Put another way, interesting things have a lot of sample size, and are likely to repeat in future. Discovering these things, whether or not others have already, is what makes this career a pleasure.
