"Market Swoon Was a Gold Mine for Hedge-Fund Bots"

From Barron's Focus on Funds:

Bot-powered hedge funds ruled last month’s gyrating markets.

Huge swings and currencies and oil last month provided a feast for automated-trading funds that use quantitative algorithms to determine what to buy and when. Calm markets dominated for most of last year.
The Wall Street Journal’s Rob Copeland and Laurence Fletcher have the report:

“Hedge-fund managers who employ complicated, automatic-trading strategies made millions off the wild swings in currency and commodity markets in recent weeks, investors said.”

The Journal quotes Roy Niederhoffer at R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, which gained 14% in January:

“These are the best conditions we’ve seen since 2008. Volatility has returned with a vengeance in every sector.”

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