David Wright
American baseball player
2
APPEARANCES
2
PODCASTS
012
DEC 30
JAN 6
JAN 13
JAN 20
JAN 27
FEB 3
FEB 10
FEB 17
FEB 24
MAR 3
MAR 10
MAR 17
MAR 24
MAR 31
APR 7
APR 14
APR 21
APR 28
MAY 5
MAY 12
MAY 19
MAY 26
JUN 2
JUN 9
JUN 16
JUN 23
JUN 30
JUL 7
JUL 14
JUL 21
JUL 28
AUG 4
AUG 11
AUG 18
AUG 25
SEP 1
SEP 8
SEP 15
SEP 22
SEP 29
OCT 6
OCT 13
OCT 20
OCT 27
NOV 3
NOV 10
NOV 17
NOV 24
DEC 1
DEC 8
DEC 15
DEC 22
DEC 29
JAN 5
JAN 12
JAN 19
JAN 26
FEB 2
FEB 9
FEB 16
FEB 23
MAR 2
MAR 9
MAR 16
MAR 23
MAR 30
APR 6
APR 13
APR 20
APR 27
MAY 4
MAY 11
MAY 18
MAY 25
JUN 1
JUN 8
JUN 15
JUN 22
JUN 29
JUL 6
JUL 13
JUL 20
JUL 27
AUG 3
AUG 10
AUG 17
AUG 24
AUG 31
SEP 7
SEP 14
SEP 21
SEP 28
OCT 5
OCT 12
OCT 19
OCT 26
NOV 2
NOV 9
May 10, 2026
Why Generative AI Still Can’t Trade | David Wright on How Quant Alpha Actually Is Done With Machine Learning, Decision Trees, and Gradient Boosting
J
16:44Jack FarleyHOST
Can you break down those four different pieces of data and, and why did you do that, that breakdown? What sorts of information are the signals?
D
16:54David WrightGUEST
If we dig down a level from, from what you described, so we, when we think about prices, we're, we're focused on, we're focused on, on trends over, over different types of horizons.
D
17:06David WrightGUEST
Those could be trends in the cross section, so comparing stocks to performance of other stocks in the universe over different horizons.
D
17:14David WrightGUEST
It could be trends in the short term, the medium term, and the long term at the individual stock level.
D
17:20David WrightGUEST
It could be some technical measures in, in how much, uh, maybe a stock's price is oscillating around a, a, a certain, uh, level.
D
17:29David WrightGUEST
When we move into the, uh, when we move into the, the fundamental world, we are still thinking about a lot of the same, uh, accounting metrics that you would see in a traditional approach, but rather than thinking about them what is their level at the moment, we're more focused on how they might be changing.
D
17:46David WrightGUEST
So what is the, what is the volatility in the, in the dividend yield over the last six months? What is the volatility in the return on assets over the last 12 months? So we're very much focused on the changes, uh, to fundamentals.
6 MINS LATER
J
24:03Jack FarleyHOST
What's an example of something that you can understand by a human, people will be listening and say, "Oh, that makes sense," and you're using the quantitative technique to capture that? W- And what is an example of the 85% of this works, the data tells us this works, but we have no idea why?
David Wright: Quant Investing & AI Explained
9:46
14:44

Alex ShahidiHOST
In everyday language, can you tell us what the computer is trying to figure out when it studies all that data? And how do you try to differentiate your approach from other models that maybe try to do the same thing?
D
9:58David WrightGUEST
Let's start and think about a more traditional quant approach that is trying to exploit some style factors or risk premia, where we can group certain signals, signals that are telling us something about a company or the stock that have an economically sound reason why they should they should work.
D
10:23David WrightGUEST
So it might be a signal in the momentum grouping of signals, momentum being something that where you're picking up on a trend maybe in a stock's performance and a trend that is going to continue in the future.
D
10:39David WrightGUEST
That has a economically sound reason why it should work, generally justified by the fact that it's accepted that different parts of the market pick up on certain news driving that trend at different times.
D
10:53David WrightGUEST
Or maybe it's a signal from the quality grouping where there is something about the quality of a company's earnings or its management team or its business model that allows it to have a outsized result versus its peers.
D
11:19David WrightGUEST
In a traditional quantitative approach, a portfolio manager will combine these different signals together in a model that they build.

Alex ShahidiHOST
Why is the reality more of a steady evolution, as you alluded to earlier? And what makes that gradual approach potentially more effective than a sudden revolution?