Quant hedge funds, both new and old, are piling in. Castle Ridge Asset Management, a Toronto-based upstart, has achieved annual average returns of 32% since its founding in 2013. It uses a sophisticated machine-learning system, like those used to model evolutionary biology, to make investment decisions. It is so sensitive, claims the firm’s chief executive, Adrian de Valois-Franklin, that it picked up 24 acquisitions before they were even announced (because of telltale signals suggesting a small amount of insider trading). Man AHL, meanwhile, a well-established $18.8bn quant fund provider, has been conducting research into machine-learning for trading purposes since 2009, and using it as one of the techniques to manage client money since 2014.

pile into enter a place in large numbers, especially in a way that is not organized 塞進；擠入

*They opened the doors and all fifteen of us piled in.他們打開門后，我們十五個人都擠了進去。

sophisticated?[s?'f?st?ket?d] adj. having a lot of experience of the world and knowing about fashion, culture and other things that people think are socially important見多識廣的；老練的；見過世面的；clever and complicated in the way that it works or is presented復雜巧妙的；先進的；精密的

*highly sophisticated computer systems 十分先進的計算機系統

acquisition?[,?kw?'z???n] n. the act of getting sth, especially knowledge, a skill, etc. (知識、技能等的)獲得，得到；a company, piece of land, etc. bought by sb, especially another company; the act of buying it購置物；收購的公司；購置的產業；購置；收購

*They have made acquisitions in several EU countries. 他們在幾個歐盟國家購買了一些產業。

telltale?['t?ltel] adj. Something that is described as telltale gives away information, often about something bad that would otherwise not be noticed. 泄露內情的；露餡的

新老量化對沖基金都紛紛涌入這一行列。自2013年成立以來，位于多倫多的行業新貴Castle Ridge資產管理公司年均回報率已達32%。該公司采用了一套精密復雜的機器學習系統來做投資決策，類似于進化生物學的建模系統。公司CEO艾德里安?德?瓦盧瓦-富蘭克林（Adrian de Valois-Franklin）稱，該系統非常靈敏，甚至在24樁收購交易公布之前就捕捉到了消息（因為指示信號顯示有小額內幕交易）。同時，資產規模達188億美元的老企業Man AHL量化基金公司自2009年起就開始研究機器學習在交易上的應用，并在2014年起將其用作管理客戶投資的手段之一。

So it seems odd that some prominent quant funds are machine-learning sceptics. Martin Lueck of Aspect Capital finds the technique overrated, saying his firm has found only limited useful applications for it. David Siegel, co-founder of Two Sigma, a quant behemoth, and David Harding of Winton Capital, have also argued that the techniques are overhyped.

sceptic a person who usually doubts that claims or statements are true, especially those that other people believe in慣持懷疑態度的人；懷疑論者

overrated If something or someone is overrated, they are considered to be better or more important than they really are. 被高估的；評價過高的

overhype to promote or publicize to excess過分提倡或宣揚

*Promoters grossly overhyped the movie.贊助者們大肆宣傳此部影片。

這樣看來，一些知名的量化基金反而是機器學習的懷疑者，似乎就有些奇怪了。Aspect Capital的馬丁?盧埃克（Martin Lueck）認為人們高估了這一技術，稱他的公司覺得機器學習用處有限。量化基金巨頭Two Sigma的聯合創始人大衛?西格爾（David Siegel）和Winton Capital的大衛?哈丁（David Harding）也同樣認為這種技術被過分炒作。

In other fields, however, machine-learning has game-changing potential. There is no reason to expect finance to be different. According to Jonathan Masci of Quantenstein, a machine-learning fund manager, years of work on rules-based approaches in computer vision—telling a computer how to recognise a nose, say—were swiftly eclipsed in 2012 by machine-learning processes that allowed computers to “learn” what a nose looked like from perusing millions of nasal pin-ups. Similarly, says Mr Masci, a machine-learning algorithm ought to beat conventional trading strategies based on rules set by humans.

rules-based approaches基于規則的方法

eclipse [?'kl?ps] v. to cause an eclipse of產生…蝕；to obscure; darken遮光；使暗；to obscure or diminish in importance, fame, or reputation把…遮暗，沒落：在地位、名氣和名譽方面使人失去榮耀或隱沒；to surpass; outshine 超越；光芒蓋過

*an outstanding performance that eclipsed the previous record.杰出的表演超越以前的記錄。

peruse?[p?'ruz] v. to read sth, especially in a careful way細讀；研讀

*A copy of the report is available for you to peruse at your leisure. 現有一份報告，供你閑暇時細讀。

pin-up n. a picture of an attractive person, especially one who is not wearing many clothes, that is put on a wall for people to look at名人(或美人)海報；掛在墻上的半裸美人像

然而在其他領域，機器學習具有顛覆性的潛力。金融界也沒有理由成為例外。機器學習基金管理公司Quantenstein的喬納森?馬茨（Jonathan Masci）認為，在計算機視覺領域，多年來的努力方向都是從規則出發，例如告訴計算機如何識別鼻子；而在2012年，機器學習進程迅速超越了這一切——它讓計算機通過仔細觀察數百萬張鼻子的圖片，“學習”鼻子長什么樣。馬茨說，與此類似，機器學習的算法終將戰勝以人為設定的規則為基礎的傳統交易策略。

The real vulnerability may in any case lie outside trading. Many quant funds depend on human researchers to sift through data and build algorithms. These posts could be replaced by better-performing machines. For all their professed scepticism, Two Sigma and its peers are busy recruiting machine-learning specialists.

vulnerability [,v?ln?r?'b?l?ti] n. 易損性；弱點

sift through sth to examine sth very carefully in order to decide what is important or useful or to find sth important細查；詳審

*Crash investigators have been sifting through the wreckage of the aircraft. 調查墜機事件的專家一直在仔細檢查飛機殘骸。

professed [pr?'f?st] adj. used to describe a belief or a position that sb has publicly made known公開表明的；used to describe a feeling or an attitude that sb says they have but which may not be sincere自稱的；自詡的；假充的

*These, at least, were their professed reasons for pulling out of the deal. 至少這些是他們自稱退出這宗交易的理由。

無論如何，真正的弱點可能在交易之外。許多量化基金依賴人類研究人員篩查數據、構建算法。這些崗位可能會被表現更好的機器所取代。雖然Two Sigma及其同行們宣稱自己不信機器學習那一套，但它們都在忙著招募機器學習專家。

■一句一練■

So it seems odd that some prominent quant funds are machine-learning sceptics.

這一句話看起來比較短，句中it作為形式主語，真正的主語是that引導的從句。上文的翻譯為“一些知名的量化基金反而是機器學習的懷疑者”。句中的難點在于fund這個單詞，大家第一眼肯定想到了“資金、基金”。這句話到底是不是這個意思呢？你可以思考一下。下面是我給出的翻譯：有些知名的量化基金管理公司卻對機器學習抱有懷疑態度，這點看起來很奇怪。