03 / COMPETITORS

Fictional competitors, dated public sources, zero live claims.

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COMPETITORS

What competitors run and what nobody can know from outside.

Thirty fictional competitors rebuilt from dated public sources: their techniques, red · blue experiments and organisations. What was observed stays apart from what is guessed, and nothing is claimed live.

Competitors
30
Techniques
48
Red · Blue specs
180
Dated sources
37
COMPETITOR ARENA 30

Thirty research targets, rebuilt as fictional WST organisations

Chosen for public material and variety of technique, not as a world top 30. Banner titles are WST simulation names; the real firm is a public reference, never an endorsement or a performance claim. Public data names it only by a general description; the site owner alone can see the real name.

Public fact

The firm’s own public description, not an audit.

WST reconstruction

WST’s own settings, techniques and judgments; not the firm’s algorithm.

Unknown

What cannot be known from outside stays unknown.

No live orders, API keys or fund movements. Synthetic replays carry a SIM badge; live paper waits for a real feed, paper fills, a ledger and reconciliation.

How a dossier is built
  1. 01 · Collect dated sources

    Register peer-reviewed papers, talks, filings, postings or documentation with a YYYY-MM date. Undated material is inadmissible.

  2. 02 · Separate fact from guess

    Observed facts and inferred strategy live in separate fields. Inferences alone are never evidence.

  3. 03 · Check the boundary

    Every profile ends with what stays unknown and what must never be claimed: live positions, performance, order flow.

  4. 04 · Compare techniques

    Compare technique families, never firms. No ranking, leaderboard or score across competitors.

DOSSIERS

Eight technique families

Anonymised technique-family dossiers, kept apart from the arena: 16 dated sources · 16 techniques · no live claims.

8 / 8
Competitor AElectronic market making
Limit order book imbalance quotingInventory skew control
Dated sources · 2
  • paper · 2021-06Peer-reviewed paper on imbalance signals with dated results tables.
  • talk · 2022-11Recorded conference talk describing quoting logic at a conceptual level.

Observed

  • Public paper reports imbalance predictive horizons under five seconds.
  • Talk describes widening quotes during volatility without naming thresholds.

Inferred

  • May run an inventory-sensitive quoting engine; thresholds and size schedule unknown.

Never claimed: Live spreads, current inventory, fill rates. · Any claim about today’s profitability.

Technique family identified; live deployment unconfirmed.

Competitor BStatistical arbitrage
Cointegration screeningResidual z-score entry and exit
Dated sources · 2
  • paper · 2019-03Published pair-selection methodology with lookback windows stated.
  • filing · 2023-02Dated regulatory filing listing statistical arbitrage among strategies.

Observed

  • Methodology paper uses 60-day formation windows.
  • Filing confirms the strategy exists without position detail.

Inferred

  • May hold sector-neutral baskets; membership and leverage unknown.

Never claimed: Current pair list, position sizes, live returns.

Research method confirmed; live book unconfirmed.

Competitor CExecution algorithms
Scheduled TWAP slicingLiquidity-seeking opportunistic fills
Dated sources · 2
  • documentation · 2022-08Dated product documentation describing algorithm parameters.
  • talk · 2023-05Recorded panel on implementation-shortfall benchmarking.

Observed

  • Documentation lists urgency and dark-pool toggles as user parameters.
  • Panel discusses benchmark gaming without naming venues.

Inferred

  • May offer client-configurable urgency; default settings unknown.

Never claimed: Client order flow, venue routing tables, fill quality.

Product surface confirmed; client usage unconfirmed.

Competitor DLatency-sensitive trading
Colocated direct feedsHardware timestamping
Dated sources · 2
  • posting · 2023-09Dated job posting listing FPGA and kernel-bypass skills.
  • filing · 2024-01Dated filing disclosing colocation and connectivity spending.

Observed

  • Posting requests FPGA experience for a market-data team.
  • Filing shows connectivity spending without strategy detail.

Inferred

  • May invest in speed; strategies running on the hardware unknown.

Never claimed: Latency figures, venue presence, message rates.

Hiring signal confirmed; live deployment unconfirmed.

Competitor EListed options market making
Volatility surface interpolationDelta-hedged inventory control
Dated sources · 2
  • paper · 2020-10Published volatility modelling notes with dated calibration windows.
  • documentation · 2023-07Dated risk disclosures mentioning options inventory limits.

Observed

  • Notes calibrate surfaces on end-of-day closes.
  • Disclosures cap inventory without revealing Greeks.

Inferred

  • May warehouse short-dated gamma; tenors and limits unknown.

Never claimed: Live Greeks, inventory age, hedging venues.

Modelling approach confirmed; live risk unconfirmed.

Competitor GIndex arbitrage
ETF creation and redemptionFutures-versus-basket basis
Dated sources · 2
  • paper · 2021-09Published creation-unit mechanics with dated settlement cycles.
  • filing · 2023-11Dated filing listing index arbitrage among principal strategies.

Observed

  • Paper settles creation units on a T+1 cycle.
  • Filing names the strategy without basket weights.

Inferred

  • May warehouse creation units around rebalances; timing and size unknown.

Never claimed: Live basket weights, creation volumes, hedging ratios.

Creation mechanics confirmed; live inventory unconfirmed.

Competitor HVolatility arbitrage
Variance-swap dispersionTerm-structure carry
Dated sources · 2
  • paper · 2020-02Published dispersion framework with dated correlation regimes.
  • talk · 2023-03Recorded talk on volatility risk premium without position detail.

Observed

  • Paper measures dispersion during three dated stress episodes.
  • Talk separates carry from directional exposure conceptually.

Inferred

  • May harvest volatility premium systematically; tenors and sizing unknown.

Never claimed: Live vega, dispersion ratios, margin usage.

Research framework confirmed; live Vega book unconfirmed.

Competitor FMachine-learning alpha research
Cross-sectional return predictionWalk-forward validation protocol
Dated sources · 2
  • paper · 2022-04Published feature study with embargoed test windows stated.
  • talk · 2024-06Recorded talk on overfitting controls without performance figures.

Observed

  • Study freezes one year of data for testing.
  • Talk lists leakage checks without showing results.

Inferred

  • May run disciplined validation; live models and turnover unknown.

Never claimed: Feature weights, live predictions, turnover, returns.

Validation discipline confirmed; live alpha unconfirmed.

Curation protocol

Manual registration only

Automated collection, scraping and live feeds are out of scope. A new dossier is accepted only when every required field is present and the boundary validator passes.

Required fields

  • id
  • label
  • family
  • techniques
  • sources
  • observations
  • boundary

Comparison guardrails

  • Compare techniques, never firms. No ranking, leaderboard or score across competitors.
  • A public source motivates a research question; it never establishes live positions or performance.
  • Undated material is inadmissible. Every claim keeps its source and YYYY-MM date.
  • Absence of a source is not evidence of absence. Uncovered competitors stay unlisted.
NEXT

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Technique families become research questions on the decision atlas. Inferences never travel there as facts.

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Four lenses, one question at a time. The algorithm lens stays selected from the desk.

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