A Quant Trader’s View on Bitcoin with Sam Trabucco

“Long term, yes bitcoin’s price is moving, in general it’s moving up...the short term moves where sometimes it goes up 20% then down 20% the next week, that’s driven by the leverage I think more than anything.”— Sam TrabuccoLocation: RemotelyDate: Monday 9th AugustCompany: Alameda ResearchRole: Co-CEO, Quant TraderWhile the Bitcoin market has grown massively over the last few years, in comparison to traditional markets, it is still somewhat immature. With a large number of inexperienced retail participants and derivative platforms offering huge leverage, just one tweet from an eccentric billionaire or a significant piece of news can cause huge volatility and cascading liquidations.These periods of high volatility are when most traders look to profit. However, a quantitative trader approaches the market a little differently. Quant traders rely on data, algorithms and bots to execute billions of dollars in daily trading at incredibly high frequency.So how does quant trading work in the Bitcoin market, and what impact do they have on the price action?In this interview, I talk to Sam Trabucco, Co-CEO and Quant Trader at Alameda Research. We discuss the role of a market maker, sentiment & momentum in Bitcoin and if there is too much leverage in the system.This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyBlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial servicesSportsbet.io - Online sportsbook & casino that accepts BitcoinCasa - The leading provider of Bitcoin multisig key security.Exodus - The world's leading Desktop, Mobile and Hardware crypto wallets.Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware wallet-----WBD384 - Show Notes-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.