D-Wave launches Quantum for Quants at Budapest derivatives conference

Burnaby, B.C.’s D-Wave Systems and Vancouver’s 1QB Information Technologies Inc. (1QBit), a company that specializes in developing software for quantum computers, have teamed up to create Quantum for Quants, an online community for quantitative analysts and finance workers to share insights into the challenges facing the finance industry.
The announcement was made at the Global Derivatives Trading & Risk Management conference in Budapest, Hungary.
“Quantum computers enable us to use the laws of physics to solve intractable mathematical problems,” said Marcos de López de Prado, Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners and a Research Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Computational Research Division. “This is the beginning of a new era, and it will change the job of the mathematician and computer scientist in the years to come.”
As de Prado points out on the Quantum for Quants website, “Our smartphones are more powerful than the systems used by NASA to put a man on the moon.”
So the tools that we currently use to try to solve financial problems like dynamic portfolio optimization, the inadequacy of current algorithms, scenario analysis, or option pricing for complex derivatives also stand to be improved over today’s available computers.
The online community offered by Quantum for Quants will provide access to quantum computing software tools, simulators, and expertise, to facilitate novel approaches to solving some of the more intractable problems related to finance.
“Sharing the tools we’ve built with the community will create a better understanding of how quantum computing can be applied to finance, and in turn will inspire the development of additional tools that enable these new applications,” said Landon Downs, President and Co-founder of 1QBit.
Backed by private investors, led by options and futures exchange the CME Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland, 1QBit has collaborated with research institutions and provided software to several Fortune 500 companies.
D-Wave Systems has sold a computer to Google and NASA, and has attracted investment from Bezos Expeditions, BDC Capital, DFJ, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, In-Q-Tel, International Investment and Underwriting, and Kensington Partners Limited.
The team of experts, from the fields of mathematics, finance, computer science and physics, who have agreed to contribute content and serve as editors for Quantum for Quants include:
Dr. Horst Simon, Deputy Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
Dr. David Bailey, Senior Scientist (retired) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Dr. Jonathan Borwein, Laureate Professor in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Newcastle
Dr. Peter Carr, Executive Director of the Courant Math Finance Program at NYU
Dr. Kesheng (John) Wu, Berkeley Lab Group Leader
Dr. David Leinweber, Co-founder of Berkeley Lab’s Center for Innovative Financial Technology
Dr. Blu Putnam, Chief Economist for CME Group
Dr. Michael Sotiropoulos, Managing Director, Global Equities at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.