Thread by @quantscience_

How to create your own "mini" hedge fund with algorithmic trading and Python

A thread 🧵

1. What is a Hedge Fund

Hedge funds pool money from wealthy individuals or institutions to seek higher, risk-adjusted returns across multiple markets.

While they often strive to outperform benchmarks like the S&P 500, the focus is usually on lowering risk (drawdowns) rather than purely maximizing returns.

2. Define Your Goals

Decide on a target annual return and understand the drawdown (potential loss) you can tolerate.

For instance, aiming for ~20% annual returns may entail accepting a ~10% drawdown.

Extremely high returns (e.g., 100% per year) can be possible but come with huge drawdowns (50–70%), which most investors find difficult to handle psychologically.

3. Choose Your Markets:

Trading across different asset classes (e.g., equities, commodities, futures) can reduce overall risk through diversification.

Example: If equity markets are falling (S&P 500 futures, “ES”), another market like oil (“CL”) might be trending up, which could offset losses.

4. Algorithmic Strategy Ideas:

Momentum Strategies: Buy (go long) when the price is above a long-term moving average (e.g., 200-day SMA) or sell (go short) when below.

This aims to catch trends.

Mean Reversion Strategies: Identify when prices deviate from an average or band (like Bollinger Bands) and expect prices to revert back.

Long/Short Pairs: Having both bullish and bearish strategies for each market (e.g., long ES, short ES, long CL, short CL) offers additional diversification and helps hedge exposure.

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6. Tracking Performance and Grouping Strategies:

Maintain a portfolio of several strategies.

Group them by market type (e.g., equities vs. commodities) or by aggressiveness (e.g., “conservative” vs. “aggressive”).

Analyze metrics: Regularly monitoring performance, drawdowns, and market conditions is critical for refining your strategy portfolio over time.

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