Company: Global Hedge Fund Company
QuIC solution computes results in 8 minutes that previously required 12 hours

The Client
A leading global provider of alternative investment products and solutions, and one of the world’s largest hedge fund companies, with offices in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

The Challenge
The client’s Board of Directors requested a series of future earnings projections to be included in their regular reporting. Generating the reports required developing a complex earnings-volatility model, which was not easy to achieve using the company’s existing in-house risk analytics system. Not only was their existing system incapable of performing the calculations, it was inadequate to meet the demands of a rapidly-changing market: it was too slow for rapid “what-if” simulations of complex models, and it was a closed system that did not allow customization or manipulation of the analytics tools.

The Solution
The client approached QuIC requesting that a custom, earnings volatility model be developed in a three-month timeframe. Says Nigel Cairns, President and CEO of QuIC, “We always relish the opportunity to prove our technology’s flexibility and value, and this was a chance to do so with one of the world’s largest and best managed hedge fund companies. The entire implementation process, from specification to development, testing, and global launch, was completed on time and on budget, within the desired three-month timeframe. Performance improvements are as promised, if not faster.” Using a single Intel processor running Windows XP and 1GB of RAM, the QuIC solution performs in 8 minutes, calculations that previously required 12 hours. 

A powerful calculation engine with a user-friendly generic interface 
The solution implemented for this client features an Excel spreadsheet as its front end. The QuIC Engine™, an exceptionally fast vector-based calculation platform, provides the power for analytics and simulations. The speed advantage allows new freedom in developing and testing complex risk analyses. Rather than running simulations overnight—and hoping that nothing failed, or a day would be wasted—risk management professionals can freely change variables and run them repeatedly in real time, in the most familiar of GUIs, with results ready in mere minutes.

The solution developed for this client is open, modular and expandable, and was developed using QuIC Script™, QuIC’s proprietary and highly intuitive scripting language. The risk management department is now equipped to provide existing and newly created projections for their Board and shareholders, thus improving the company’s corporate governance and transparency. This was achieved without any significant investment in hardware, training or adoption of an additional development environment.

The client’s risk management professionals can now also stress-test their calculations (run more scenarios and calculations multiple times, while changing fundamental assumptions and variables, such as interest rates), something which was previously impossible, and client funds can now be simulated far into the future. With faster, more nimble calculations and scenarios available, the client has the strategic information they need to improve decision-making and profits.

QuIC Financial Technologies delivers flexible risk management and analysis tools, compatible with in-house, partner and third-party applications & systems and operates in diverse environments, from a single laptop to large distributed grids. The QuIC Platform™ provides speed, accuracy and flexibility for pricing and risk calculations regardless of volume or complexity. QuIC technology delivers scalable, dynamically extensible and user-customizable solutions, by creating a seamless calculation fabric available to multiple recipients throughout the enterprise.