Our Philosophy
AlphaQuest embodies the intersection of mathematics and mindfulness.
Our identity reflects a deep appreciation for the natural world's mathematical patterns and ratios hinting at an underlying order. We understand that math only tangentially explains reality - reality can be mathematically unstable due to unforeseen shifts.
We champion patience and discipline in our approach, valuing long-term insights over transient market movements.
Our ethos encourages looking beyond the surface to discover the inherent forces that distinguish substantial opportunities from fleeting trends.
Our brand emphasizes growth, balance, and the importance of perspective in investment strategies.
It's a call to cultivate a mindset attuned to the nuances of the market, designed to perceive Alpha where others see beta, leveraging the disciplined, patient analysis that defines our culture.
Our philosophy is not just an investment strategy – it is a holistic view of finding harmony in complexity, ensuring our decisions are grounded in a deep understanding of the world's intrinsic patterns.
It's how we differentiate ourselves, seeking true Alpha in a world captivated by beta.
Team
Through our collaborative approach to research, our team combines our values - intellectual humility, transparent collaboration, rapid prototyping, and knowledge continuity - to improve our understanding of Alpha and tail risk, in an effort to develop quantitative investment strategies that benefit from short-term expansions in volatility and crowding, as well as longer-term shifts in the market regime.
Nigol Koulajian
Nigol Koulajian
Nigol Koulajian is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of AlphaQuest LLC.
Mr. Koulajian founded AlphaQuest in March 2001 to pursue his passion for quantitative investment research and strategy development, which he has focused on from the beginning of his career in the early 1990’s. After lengthy research, Mr. Koulajian identified specific strategies using proprietary techniques that have been continuously enhanced over the past twenty-four years and became the basis for the growth of AlphaQuest.
In 2002, Mr. Koulajian started the NOK Foundation, which is committed to promoting the study and practice of yoga and meditation globally. Mr. Koulajian has acted as a board member of the Omega Institute and David Lynch Foundation. Mr. Koulajian earned an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School and a BS in electrical engineering from Notre Dame.
Robert Toth
Robert Toth
Robert Toth is a Partner and the Head of Trading & Technology at AlphaQuest.
Mr. Toth began his career at AlphaQuest in 2004, where he served as a Research and Trading Associate, and was eventually promoted to Head Trader. In 2010, he moved to Vegasoul, where he served as Head of Trading until 2014. There, he was responsible for global trading, technology, and quantitative research. In 2014, Mr. Toth returned to AlphaQuest to serve as Head of Trading.
Mr. Toth holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and an MBA from Columbia Business School (Honors with Distinction).
Nicholas M. Chan, CFA
Nicholas M. Chan, CFA
Nick Chan is Partner, Head of Capital Development & Investor Relations at AlphaQuest, responsible for the firm’s capital development and marketing efforts, as well as the firm’s relationships with all investors globally.
Prior to joining AlphaQuest in March 2024, Nick spent more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where he held various roles from 2000 to 2023. His most recent role was as Chief Commercial Officer for the $330bn Public Equity franchise within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), where he worked closely with the business’s Chief Investment Officer, investment leads, and leaders in Client Solutions & Capital Markets to drive client engagement and develop investment insights.
Prior to his Chief Commercial Officer role at GSAM, Mr. Chan was a Managing Director and led the client portfolio management efforts for GSAM’s Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) team in the Americas and Bengaluru from 2015 to 2022. He focused on product development, communications and strategy for the QIS platform across institutional, private wealth management and third-party retail channels. Additionally, Mr. Chan was previously the lead portfolio manager for various of GSAM’s registered funds, including the Goldman Sachs S&P 4 Portfolios, a rules-based application of certain smart beta factors, as well as the Goldman Sachs Asset Allocation Portfolios, Goldman Sachs Satellite Strategies Portfolio, and the Goldman Sachs Retirement Strategy Portfolios.
In 2022, Mr. Chan was named among the Asian American Business Development Center’s Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business, recognizing him for his contributions to the Asian community both personally and professionally.
Mr. Chan holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations with Honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University. He is a CFA charterholder.
Paul Czkwianianc
Paul Czkwianianc
Paul Czkwianianc is a Partner at AlphaQuest.
Mr. Czkwianianc has collaborated with AlphaQuest’s Founder and CIO, Nigol Koulajian, for over two decades, and played an integral role in conceptualizing, designing and implementing AlphaQuest’s unique Alpha-generating strategies. As a founding principal of AlphaQuest LLC in 2001, Mr. Czkwianianc has driven the development of the firm’s investment platform and innovation of new models and strategies. Mr. Czkwianianc started his career in 1999 as a Research Analyst at Enterprise Asset Management, a firm co-founded by Mr. Koulajian, and the predecessor to AlphaQuest LLC.
Mr. Czkwianianc holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University and a Master in Science in Mathematics from New York University. At NYU, he was enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Mathematics, where he worked on mathematical modeling and its application in neuroscience.
Strategies
Our strategies seek to provide truly differentiated Alpha that exhibits low to negative correlation to the primary risks in most investor portfolios - long-only exposures in primary assets as well as long-short exposures from alternatives more broadly.
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Derivatives trading involves substantial risk of loss and may not be suitable for everyone. This is not a solicitation.
AlphaQuest Original
AlphaQuest Original (AQO) is our flagship, fully systematic investment strategy that seeks to provide investors with strong absolute returns and valuable hedging characteristics, particularly during periods of volatility expansion and equity or fixed income market corrections.
The strategy trades across global markets in equities, fixed income, currencies, and commodities. We believe that AQO provides a differentiated approach to classic systematic strategies due our focus on forecasting and reacting to tail-risk events, as well as trading faster in an effort to adapt quickly during those periods of market shifts and volatility expansions.
This allows our strategy to benefit when tail risk is most likely to materialize. We believe the strategy is a great portfolio diversifier and acts as a hedge to traditional portfolios as well as hedge fund portfolios.
Portable Alpha Solutions
We also develop investment strategies that couple our AlphaQuest Original program with exposure to traditional, long-only equity exposure (e.g., S&P 500 Index) to varying degrees, based on investor preference.
This provides investors with the ability to potentially customize their implementation of our Alpha capabilities in a manner that best suits their investment objectives, such as a pure market-neutral implementation, or a beta 1 implementation which would combine AQO with exposure to a benchmark of choice.