For financial geeks, a do-it-yourself hedge fund site #quant

Source: Reuters via Global Post
Date: July 1, 2013 15:34
by: Tim McLaughlin

BOSTON (Reuters) - In the secretive world of hedge funds, algorithms are not shared because they provide the juice behind market-beating returns, and are a key reason why hedge funds charge their clients "two and twenty" - an annual fee equivalent to 2 percent of assets, plus 20 percent of gains.

Now startup company Quantopian offers a tantalizing proposition for software and financial geeks who want to trade like a hedge fund manager - but don't want to pay those steep fees. The Boston-based firm is bringing together a community of people who build algorithms used for trading stocks.

Nearly 30,000 algorithms have been created from the Quantopian community. A few hundred have been made available for free on the firm's website (www.quantopian.com).
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Read the rest here.

$6 billion hedge fund bets on 40% crash in SP500

RT News reporter Lucy Kafanov interviews Courtney Comstock of Business Insider regarding the bearish positioning of the $6 billion Universa hedge fund which has a steep $50 million minimum investment to get in:

The fund manager of Universa is Mark Spitznagel, the protege of Nassim Taleb, author of "The Black Swan".  Mr. Spitznagel is also a follower of Ludwig von Mises. I have noticed many von Mises economists (such as Peter Schiff) have a pretty bleak outlook and predictions for the U.S. economy or dollar.  Notice that there appears to be some real fear/apprehension on the part of the reporters as they contemplate, "What if Mark Spitznagel is right?"  I do not blame them.

For further details, read Meet Mark Spitznagel: The Hedge Fund Manager Betting $6 Billion On A Doomsday Scenario from Business Insider.