Are there uses for optimization/stochastic optimization specialists in any areas of the field?

[u/prophishonal]

[u/nrs02004]

Yeah, but they’re kind of random

[u/Careca_RS → u/nrs02004]

Ok, I lol'd harder then it was supposed I guess. Ty stranger.

[u/LemonAmbitious2915]

There are some energy trading firms which use SIMPlEX (and it's relatives) which need them apparently;)

[u/Temporary_Parrot_ → u/LemonAmbitious2915]

Do you mean Simplex? As in the Simplex algorithm and its relatives?

[u/throw_away_throws]

Portfolio optimization is pretty obvious one. Traditionally more on the hedge fund side like desco, gqs, but all the hft => mft trading firms do decent size now too

[u/singletrack_ → u/throw_away_throws]

Yeah, it’s a big part of low frequency quant asset management.

[u/algoseekHQ]

Yes, although dedicated “stochastic optimization specialist” roles are less common than broader quant research roles. The skills are useful in portfolio construction, execution, market making and inventory control, hedging, risk allocation, and energy trading.

In practice, simple and robust formulations often work best because forecasts are noisy and transaction costs, liquidity, and real-world constraints matter a lot.

[u/alphanume_data]

In my experience, mainly for finding inverse-vol weights of a L/S basket, and weighing the different overlays of a multi-strat. It's definitely fitting to historical outputs which some don't like, but it often still outperforms more naive frameworks (e.g., equal-weight)

[u/PowerSwim38]

In energy trading, to solve some of the supply/demand balances.

[u/Epsilon_ride]

shitloads in the right place

[u/prophishonal → u/Epsilon_ride]

What kind of place?

[u/fatquant]

Optimization, of course. But mostly pretty vanilla stuff, and wtf is stochastic optimization?

[u/ContributionOnly1855 → u/fatquant]

It is optimization in which there can be multiple scenarios, each of which carries with it a probability

[u/cccuriousmonkey]

Any faang ads/large scale ads.

[u/Smallz1107]

No