#52 - Efrem Hoffman, CEO of RunningAlpha - On how human-machine combos can be used to avert financial tornado's

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation in the financial marketplace that has the power to transform the way we know it in two ways:

1. Avoid disruptive shifts in financial market mood by predicting subtle changes in perception bias 2. Increase shareholder value and impact by offering a new framework of decision-making, such that early insights into market dislocations and even market crashes can be timely converted into new and persistent high-impact alpha opportunity centers.

My guest here today is Efrem Hoffman.

Efrem Hoffman is the CEO, Founding Architect, and Thought-Leader of RunningAlpha, an independent Canadian Innovation Think-Tank, headquartered in Toronto As stated on his website, he is employing patented and proprietary insights at the intersection of physics and finance to exploit market uncertainty for competitive advantage.

He is a thought-leader in Smart-Data Analysis Architecture and developer of Quantum-Behavioral Trading Machines; Efrem has 145 citations and multiple info-tech patents referenced in patents granted to Fortune 500 Companies & Research Think-Tanks.

His vision is rethinking the way we can collaborate with nature in order to better exploit uncertainty. With that in mind, he’s developing solutions that help investors build intelligent portfolios and see investment opportunities before they arrive and get noticed. From there, he helps them navigate around value traps to ensure they maximize the value of their portfolio. This inspired me, hence I invited Efrem to my podcast. We explore the challenges and risks of today’s financial market and how technology can help investors gain early access to opportunities previously only discoverable by the Wall Street influencers.

Here are some of Efrems’ quotes:

“My passion has always been about understanding the physics that underlies very unusual events.

I did a thesis, which was basically on applying vision techniques in three dimensional radar in order to use AI in a more constructive way, where humans don't make assumptions about what's actually happening in the surroundings.

I patented technology and there was a couple people, one from the University of Manitoba. Some of the professor's there noticed that some of the applications of that AI approach that was used for atmosphere Tornado prediction could be applied to the financial markets and understanding you know extreme behavior and what causes it to take shape during manias and panics.

I'm most proud of actually being able to make predictions of it in very narrow windows and, and persistent windows for when market crashes are likely to take place, so that I could actually protect investors portfolios during those events."

During this interview, you will learn three things:

1. Why the best decisions can only be made when bias and sentiment are taken out of the equation – this is a clear area for technology to play a significant role 2. That the solutions we create will gain in value exponentially when they not only predict a certain high-risk event accurately but also provide the ingredients to prevent it altogether 3. How to find new sources for innovation by searching for use cases that are driven by extreme uncertainty. Tackling uncertainty can turn into a clear competitive advantage.

If you want to learn more about Running Alpha’s latest product, “Capital Market Trends,” visit CapitalMarketTrends.