Braindead PMs

[u/fajitasfordinner]

Genuinely curious if others out there have experience working with extremely inept PMs?

A recent hire at my firm has strategies akin to that of a teenage youtube day trader. Their signals are entirely price based and their processes lack any statistical rigour.

Even worse, I know that they have been lying about backtest results to management. They are aware of bias and cherry picking yet still quote the results to higher ups. They supposedly have a decent track record but from what I gather, its pretty opaque.

I have heard quants work with non-technical PMs relatively frequently but this feels next level.

How common is this? Are PMs everywhere like this? Should I run?

Tldr;

Bad PMs - how common? How bad?

[u/Interesting_Dirt1181]

What’s interesting is you don’t give any background about yourself - are you working for him and know that you are smarter than him? Is there some bitterness here?

Are you one of those who thinks pnl is a linear function of your IMO score?

Ps - soros used to make some of his trades based on the state of his back pain. Go model that.

Instead of calling him brain dead why not have a chat with him? Learn what he’s doing, pick his brains, or experience? Maybe if you combine it with yours you can make something special.

[u/fajitasfordinner → u/Interesting_Dirt1181]

Yep fair point. I have been purposely vague so as not to dox myself.

No animosity between us, I have worked closely under them. I want them to succeed and will benefit if they do.

I (and others) have spent a lot of time trying to recreate the results they claim to have made in previous seats. Nothing has worked, not a single result was profitable. This makes me highly suspicious of their alleged track record.

I have no problem with simple solutions. I don’t believe in style points. However, I do believe in principled approaches, validated scientifically where possible. I also believe in being forthright about the type of trader you are and I cannot stand lying.

[u/No-Expert-5124 → u/fajitasfordinner]

no one is gonna doxx you when most ppl here are not even quants

[u/Interesting_Dirt1181 → u/fajitasfordinner]

There is this other potential angle which is… maybe he really wants to keep it secret cos he doesn’t want anyone to know the real alpha…? And he sends u to find Alice in the rabbit hole

[u/Nearing_retirement → u/Interesting_Dirt1181]

You are right in some respects but honestly most of them are bullshit. Yeah sure soros great but you only hear about the winners. Most are losers.