The 2017 Trading Tech 40: Manoj Narang

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24. Manoj Narang
Chief Executive Officer
Mana Partners
Last year: 26

For quantitative trading firms, technology is typically a cost center. “My overriding objective is to take the technology and turn it into a profit center,” Manoj Narang says. He worked on that model for 16 years with Tradeworx, a high frequency trading shop that he founded. Tradeworx’s Thesys Technologies affiliate was recently designated the Securities and Exchange Commission’s primary contractor for its massive transaction database, the Consolidated Audit Trail.

In October 2015, several months after leaving Tradeworx, Narang began anew with Mana Partners — he as CEO and chief investment strategist, with co-founder John Holena as president and chief information officer. Now up to about 40 people — the principals have 200-plus years of combined quant trading experience — the New York firm raised $1 billion for a hedge fund prior to its January launch. Narang, 47, believes he is differentiating his fund by “combining traditional quantitative investing — statistical arbitrage — with HFT.” He says that with a couple of deals pending, the fintech side of the business is about to take off: “There is tremendous room for innovation in how asset management services are delivered.”

The 2017 Trading Tech 40