Systematic trading, reimagined.
A squad of specialist AI analysts on Alpaca — they screen and research the market, backtest strategies across a parameter grid, paper-trade the winners live, then validate every fill and report the P&L. Chat-first, from ticker to track record.
◆ See live strategies on the Leaderboard →It ties into the idea of small, disciplined edges compounding over time.
You set the rules. AI helps you tune them.
Systematic trading, in short
Trading by fixed rules instead of in-the-moment judgment. Entries, exits, position size and risk limits are set in advance and applied the same way every time, so the same signal gives the same decision whether you are confident, scared or away from the screen. It is rule-based; algorithmic is just the delivery, the rules coded so a computer places the orders (many early systems were run by hand).
Unlike discretionary trading, a system is backtested on history first and only then traded live. Common styles: trend following, mean reversion, carry, statistical arbitrage and volatility strategies.
Origins: from rice charts to Medallion
- 1730Dojima rice exchange, Osaka: the roots of candlestick charting.
- 1900Bachelier models prices as a random walk.
- 1952Markowitz turns diversification into mathematics.
- 1969Thorp's Princeton Newport runs quantitative arbitrage.
- 1970sAfter 1971, trend-following CTAs (Campbell, Millburn, later AHL, Winton, Aspect); Bridgewater founded 1975.
- 1980sRenaissance (1982); the Turtles learn rules, not instinct (1983–84); Tartaglia's stat-arb desk at Morgan Stanley; D.E. Shaw.
- TodaySmart beta and high-frequency trading bring rules to every corner of the market.
The through-line: explicit, testable rules beat in-the-moment judgment.
See what the big funds hold — and how it performed.
13F holdings for every filer: screen by quarter, AUM and position, follow well-known funds, and compare their estimated annual returns with SPY. Free for everyone — just sign in.
One system. Ticker to track record.
Your AI trading squad spans five workflow stages — talk to any one directly, or let the orchestrator run the whole loop.
Backtest it. Paper-trade it. Prove it.
Create an account and put the squad to work — bring your own Alpaca keys.