There was a time when devising investment strategies was a mix of luck, cunning, ingenuity, and courage, all sprinkled with a heaped helping of anxiety, should the whole thing go south and leave the investor high and dry, and very much out of pocket.
One of the latest investment trends is quantitative investing, sometimes shortened to quant investing.
Quant strategies go back to the early 1900s, and it is generally accepted that French mathematician Louis Bachelier became the first person to apply complex mathematical concepts to the study of the financial markets. His Ph.D thesis The Theory of Speculation, published in 1900, became a sort of investor’s rulebook.
Quantitative investment at its core relies on the application of rigorous mathematical and statistical principles to find and ascertain investment opportunities. This type of financial device has long been discussed by academics and used by crafty investors, but only came into prominence with the advent of computer power. Now, risk models, expected returns, and other financial assessments are done with the click of a mouse.
And in more recent times, blockchain technology has enabled further opportunities to apply quantitative investment theories.
Enter NaPoleonX, a new ICO that intends to develop and expand quantitative investment strategies, via the blockchain.
NaPoleonX: First algorithmic crypto-asset management ICO
https://youtu.be/Rfcbzt6sWvE
The company intends to become the first ICO to offer algorithmic asset management services for crypto investors, offering a platform called Napoleon Crypto, running on the blockchain.
NaPoleonX will use Decentralized Autonomous Funds (DAFs), a new type of quantitative hedge funds for the blockchain community. DAFs are essentially smart contracts that can invest across different financial markets, using bots to identify the best opportunities.
See how the process works here.
Napoleonx in numbers & quick facts
https://twitter.com/NapoleonXai/status/940154065358610432
- Token Name: NapoleonX (NPX)
- Token Value: 1 ETH = 100 Tokens
- Pre-ICO Start Date = November 12, 2017
- Pre-ICO End Date = December 11, 2017
- ICO Start Date: December 12nd, 2017
- ICO End Date: January 4th, 2018
- Number of tokens issued: 11,500,000
- Target cap: 40,000 ETH
- Max cap: 60,000 ETH
The NaPoleonX token
https://youtu.be/HWdxObpdB5g
As with any other ICO, the company will issue its own currency, the NapoleonX token (NPX). NPX is based on the ERC-20 standard, which utilizes the Ethereum blockchain.
Once created, the tokens will be allocated as follows:
- ICO participants : 70%
- Social Bounty : 2%
- Advisors / miscellaneous : 13%
- Founders share : 15%
- There will be no token creation, minting or mining after the ICO period. Tokens will be transferable once the ICO is successfully completed.
The team
The company’s website presents a core team of 11 people, plus nine advisors.
The team offers a nice and balanced mix of mathematical, financial, and technical ability, with plenty of proven experience relevant to the offering at hand.
All team members feature a short bio and a link to their LinkedIn profiles.
Overall, the team appears solid, relevant, and capable.
Learn more about the NaPoleonX team here.
Social Media presence and digital footprint
A strong presence on Social Media is usually a good indicator of a company’s popularity, though it is not the only factor that determines success.
Here’s the numbers for NaPoleonX, at the time of writing (December 2017).
- Twitter – 3,283 followers
- Facebook – 6,243 followers
- YouTube – 113 followers
- Medium – 149 followers
- LinkedIn – 200 followers
- GitHub – 5 followers
Overall, NaPoleonX’s presence on Social Media is quite solid and trustworthy.
Website quality & layout
An ICO’s website is the first port of call for any potential investors, and if the site isn’t appealing enough, they will move on and forget about your proposition, no matter how good or viable it may be. It is therefore imperative to design a good website, to make a strong and lasting first impression.
NaPoleonX’s website is a solid, well-designed affair. It uses a rather subdued but elegant color palette, featuring all the sections expect from an ICO. The text is free from grammatical or spelling errors, which is always a plus.
Only slight criticism is that the Whitepaper link did not work properly, but I was able to get NaPoleonX’s Whitepaper from their GitHub page.
Overall, the site is worthwhile.
The Whitepaper
A well laid out, informative, comprehensive Whitepaper is a must for any ICO, if they are to be taken seriously. Documentation is sometimes treated as an afterthought, leaving many companies open to some criticism.
In NaPoleonX’s case, the Whitepaper is well written, with just the odd repetition and unusual grammatical structure, which betrays the hand of non-English native. This matters little in this occasion however, as the Whitepaper is otherwise informative and well structured. The concepts are clear, and the value proposition is unmistakable.
Conclusion
The concept and inner workings of quantitative trading are just as obscure and alien to me as Martian markings, but that’s not the point. The ICO’s value proposition will appeal to those with a financial and mathematical mind, and those who wish to put all this knowledge to the test to make money.
Blockchain technology has reached a point where investment strategies can be devised and applied through trading bots, using Napoleon Crypto Trading Bots. This little computerized entities will find the right opportunities for the investors.
On a personal note, I could not elucidate why the ‘Napoleon’ moniker. Perhaps the company, which uses French technology by the way, wishes to make a connection between the illustrious historical figure and the Napoleon Crypto platform commanding an army of trading bots on the blockchain trading field.
https://twitter.com/NapoleonXai/status/915870890939883520
Whichever the case may be, it shall remain a mystery.
