“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 Trabucco

Location: Remotely
Date: Monday 9th August
Company: Alameda Research
Role: Co-CEO, Quant Trader

While 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 instantly
BlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial services
Sportsbet.io - Online sportsbook & casino that accepts Bitcoin
Casa - 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

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WBD384 - Show Notes

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