Wright Research's Sonam Srivastava Explains how New-Age Technology is Redefining the Investment Landscape

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 5 January 2023

Sonam Srivastava, Founder & CEO, Wright Research, is a globally recognized researcher in the field of machine learning in finance & quantitative investing. She has experience of over 9+ years in Quantitative research and portfolio management working on systematic strategies, algorithmic trading, long-short strategies, arbitrage, and high-frequency trading. She has expertise in Factor Investing, Momentum Investing, Algo trading, technical analysis, and fundamental analysis. She has worked with HSBC Edelweiss &Qplum where she has built and handled large-scale portfolios & trading algorithms in US & India.

In 2019, Sonam founded Wright Research, a Mumbai based quantitatively managed investment firm that offers tactical portfolios for various levels of investor risk and return profiles backed by strong quantitative and technological acumen.

Introduce us to Wright Research? What led you to establish an investment advisory firm that leverages technology for efficient decision-making?

Wright Research is a wealth creator in the digital space that uses scientific data-driven methods to tactically extract opportunities across assets in the public markets to grow clients’ wealth. Wright functions as SEBI registered Robo advisor and is among the most popular advisors among millennial investors with more than 40000 clients and 250 crore+ assets. Wright Research has delivered a 90% + outperformance over the index in the last 3 years.

I am an IIT graduate and I used to create trading algorithms for high-frequency trading at HSBC and Edelweiss. But when the U.S. advisory I worked for scrapped plans to launch in India, I decided to start my own advisory business in Mumbai. I deeply believed that Indian investor is looking for better products to enhance their investing journey, and the new-age millennial investor trusts quantitative algorithms for efficient decision-making. This thesis was validated by the amazing response we got from our subscribers and we are now building to deliver more amazing results and products.

How do you intend to transform the stock market industry with your high-technology model? Elaborate on Wright Research’s usage of new-age technologies.

The Indian market has myriad opportunities, which come and go dynamically, which is why well-researched and risk-managed quantitative investment strategies can flourish here.

At Wright Research, we have a proven and unbeatable track record of consistent performance in good and bad times. We are a stand-out investment product in the Indian market, which is scalable and tailor-made for the unique risks in India. We deliver exceptional performance with our expertise in quantitative factor-driven strategies and regime-based risk management.

Through artificial intelligence and data science-based research in investing, we are helping investors find the best investments. We work across market factors, time horizons & asset classes to maximise returns while minimising the risks.

Can you tell us about some key trends you see developing in the Indian investment sector? How do foresee the space evolving going forward?

Investment strategies have evolved significantly in recent years as technological advances have made it easier for investors to access a broader range of information and analyse financial data more effectively. Some key ways investment strategies have changed in recent years include Increased use of data and analytics, leveraging tools such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse large amounts of data and identify patterns and trends. In addition, there has been Greater reliance on technology for research and Increased use of automated investment strategies.

Investors should consider using technology-based strategies because they can provide several benefits, like improved efficiency, accuracy, Greater accessibility and Increased transparency.

With emerging technological ways of investing, why should retail investors seek interest in Wright Research for investing?

AI and ML have become increasingly important tools in many fields, and their use will continue to grow and evolve in the coming years. Applications like Chat GPT have shown AI's real-life power, and we hope such excellent tools will continue to be invented in 2023.

We see an immense opportunity in using AI for Financial Applications. AI and ML can be used to analyse financial data, make predictions about market trends and investment opportunities, and create a much better user experience than traditional means.

Similarly, there is an excellent opportunity in Retail where AI and ML can optimise pricing and inventory management, personalise customer recommendations, and improve supply chain efficiency. In other fields like Health care, Manufacturing, Transportation and Energy, AI & ML can continue to add immense benefits.

Overall, AI and ML will continue to be used in a wide range of industries and applications in the coming years as organisations seek to leverage the power of these technologies to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and drive innovation.

What is the growth potential of AlgoInvesting in the near future?

Algorithmic trading is transformative in many ways - apart from profit opportunities for the trader, the algorithm makes trading more systematic by ruling out the impact of human emotions and errors on trading activities. It also makes the market more efficient and liquid. The primary reasons algorithmic trading takes over manual trading are - speed, accuracy, and cost savings. Algos can find patterns and trade-in fraction of seconds - faster than human perception, and when the machine follows predefined instructions, accuracy and precision are advantageous. In addition, the Algo monitors your orders continually without your oversight, leading to considerable time reduction for trading lower transaction costs.

Overall, Algo-trading is changing how people invest in the stock market by providing a faster and more efficient way to analyse and execute trades. As the industry gets wider recognition, the inefficiencies of algos would come under control, and algorithms would revolutionise the markets with efficiency, unbiasedness, and data-driven decision-making.

Since you recently got funding, how do plan to spend the funding and in which sector would you like to invest? What are your future plans for more external funding?

With the new funds, we will bolster its execution technology and client experience, push for building a wider community of subscribers, and also start its foray into Portfolio Management Services and Alternative Investing with the appropriate SEBI licenses.

We recently launched its app to bring out its unique message to its target audience and to present the best experience to the end client. The new product has an end-to-end client experience, from onboarding to execution. We will continue to raise more capital as we hit more milestones in the future.