Lyxor is joining forces with Alphien and X-Finance, the Polytechnique association dedicated to finance, in order to launch an Alphathon, a competition open to international business school and university students aimed at creating dynamic ETF Lyxor portfolio models to outperform the Stoxx 600 index (dividends reinvested). One of the competition’s most noticeable feature is the use of data science.
Lyxor will provide candidates with historical price information for the ETF Stoxx 600 and the 18 sectoral ETFs which compose it, over a backtest period from January 2007 to December 2017.
The competition will be entirely online on Alphien’s integrated platform. The fintech provides the technology, the tools to easily build artificial intelligence models and back-tests, as well as some macroeconomic (leading indicators, inflation) and financial data (interest rates, exchange rates, …).
X-Finance’s role will be to promote the competition among finance associations at business schools and universities in order to increase its appeal to a broad community of data scientists.
The Alphathon awards ceremony will be held in the first quarter of 2020.
Arnaud Llinas, Head of ETF and Indexing at Lyxor Asset Management notes: “Innovation is part of our DNA and we have stayed faithful to our tradition of building bridges between academic research and the asset management industry. This Alphathon will enable us not only to forge prestigious partnerships with leading international business schools but also to explore how data science can be used in order to generate returns using ETFs”.
Lionel Semonin, CEO at Alphien, notes: “Opening up quantitative finance research to experts from various disciplines lies at the heart of Alphien’s mission. Our platform facilitates collaborative research and offers all participants a unique and equitable opportunity to provide a scientific solution to an investment problem. We share Lyxor’s pioneering vision of open innovation. We thank Lyxor for their trust and look forward to discovering the ideas that will emerge from the competition.”.
Hugo Zylberajch, President of X-Finance at the Ecole Polytechnique, adds: “Applying financial engineering expertise within a competition like this is a formidable opportunity for us. We are also very proud to benefit from Alphien’s tools and Lyxor’s support.”
Previously, in April 2019, Lyxor organised a Datathon along with Le Liberté Living Lab and Alphien, with the aim of measuring the links between the financial performance of assets and the inclusion of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria in investment decisions.
Press contact:
Lyxor Asset Management
Claire THIBEAU – Communication
Tel.: +33 1 42 13 84 88
Email: claire.thibeau@lyxor.com
Alphien
François Lemoine
Tel.: +33 6 21 20 54 20
Email: francois@alphien.com