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The Unrules: Man, Machines and the Quest to Master Markets
Learn from a master of quantitative finance the rules that made him a success.
The UnRules presents the dynamic rules for success in the age of exponential information. Written by Igor Tulchinsky, the trader behind global quantitative investment management firm WorldQuant, this book is more than just another Big Data guide for financial wonks — it’s a prescriptive, inspirational book for everyone navigating the tidal waves of the information age. Data is everywhere, coming at us in a never-ceasing, ever-rising river that threatens to overwhelm us. Tulchinsky shows us, however, how natural patterns underlie that data — patterns that may dictate life or death, success or failure. The marriage of man and machines has allowed scientists to explore increasingly complex worlds, to predict outcomes and eventualities. This book demonstrates how to exercise real intelligence by discerning the patterns that surround us every day and how to leverage this information into success in the workplace and beyond.Igor Tulchinsky has spent his career discerning meaningful patterns in information. For decades, Tulchinsky has been at the forefront of developing predictive trading algorithms known as alphas — a quest that has led Tulchinsky to explore the nature of markets, the fundamentals of risk and reward, and the science behind complex nonlinear systems.
Tulchinsky explains what we know of these systems, both natural and man-made, in accessible and personal terms, and he shares how alphas have driven his success as an investor and shaped his central “UnRule,” which is that no rule applies in every case. As markets evolve, even the most effective trading algorithms weaken over time. Decades of creating successful alphas — and learning how to effectively transform them into strategies — have taught Tulchinsky about the need to combine flexibility and focus, discipline and creativity when building complex models. At a time when data and computing power are exploding exponentially, The UnRules provides an expert introduction to our increasingly quantitative world.
The UnRules presents the dynamic rules for success in the age of exponential information. Written by Igor Tulchinsky, the trader behind global quantitative investment management firm WorldQuant, this book is more than just another Big Data guide for financial wonks — it’s a prescriptive, inspirational book for everyone navigating the tidal waves of the information age. Data is everywhere, coming at us in a never-ceasing, ever-rising river that threatens to overwhelm us. Tulchinsky shows us, however, how natural patterns underlie that data — patterns that may dictate life or death, success or failure. The marriage of man and machines has allowed scientists to explore increasingly complex worlds, to predict outcomes and eventualities. This book demonstrates how to exercise real intelligence by discerning the patterns that surround us every day and how to leverage this information into success in the workplace and beyond.Igor Tulchinsky has spent his career discerning meaningful patterns in information. For decades, Tulchinsky has been at the forefront of developing predictive trading algorithms known as alphas — a quest that has led Tulchinsky to explore the nature of markets, the fundamentals of risk and reward, and the science behind complex nonlinear systems.
Tulchinsky explains what we know of these systems, both natural and man-made, in accessible and personal terms, and he shares how alphas have driven his success as an investor and shaped his central “UnRule,” which is that no rule applies in every case. As markets evolve, even the most effective trading algorithms weaken over time. Decades of creating successful alphas — and learning how to effectively transform them into strategies — have taught Tulchinsky about the need to combine flexibility and focus, discipline and creativity when building complex models. At a time when data and computing power are exploding exponentially, The UnRules provides an expert introduction to our increasingly quantitative world.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 24, 2018
22 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 5, 2019
Excellent 4 hours recruitment pitch for WordQuant hedge fund.
December 15, 2022
Ihar Tulchinsky is a ‘famous quant’ who published another book, expanded from the presentations he gave/was giving/was about to give internally at his WorldQuant fund.
I trust different people will read the book with different things in mind but overall it is an abridged version of his professional development. Reflecting on it, he tries to uncover general rules and he comes up with one ‘UnRule’: all rules can fail. Thirdly he motivates a lot of his narrative with extensive forays in the history of computer science and biology, and to a lesser degree maths, physics and economics.
Thus the book is part autobiography, part ‘self-help’ book and part science history book.
It is very short to expand on deep thoughts—think of it as a one-hour presentation, writ with some extra verbosity (the author is a vocal advocate of the Laconic mode of communication), and I’m sure he decided to publish it based on his ‘opportunities rule’, although once published he cannot cut back on his reputational losses—as per another of his rules.
Unfortunately none of the three tropes of the book are entirely satisfactory.
The autobiography part is about a child of a refugee family who becomes successful through honest work and persistence. The story would fit many immigrants that have worked to a comfortable living in the USA. The author of course being by many metrics more successful than most is partly the reason many read this book. It is fortunate that the author did not claim to be a genius, but merely a hard worker (as per one of his rules: always thinking about his work).
I am not an expert in self-help books but the rules might help some people to focus. They are not exactly rules but frequent (some happened only once) occurrences in the author’s life, abstracted and codified. Most of them are again completely cliched—persistence, openness to opportunities, etc. Some of them are actually worthy of further thought (e.g. obstacles are information: when one hits an obstacle perhaps one shouldn't try harder to overcome it; it might signify that there is something wrong with one’s approach). The ‘UnRule’—the rule to rule them all—is actually just a reminder that rules do not work, but are guidelines that help drive one to a desirable direction (much like his rule of planning and setting goals for the future, well knowing one will not get there). Probably good advice both for people that follow rules and those that don’t.
Finally, the science history part might be inspiring for non-scientific or younger people—a lot of it is common knowledge, but there are so many mentions that most will learn something new. It does add somewhat to the arguments but more than that I would say that it is a testament to the author’s affiliation with computer science: mainly Manhattan project computer development and simulations (John von Neumann, Ulam, Monte Carlo algorithms etc.) the latest issues related to computational breakthroughs and ‘big data’ and inference problems in biology-DNA sequencing-personalized medicine, and occasionally finance, economics, complex networks etc.
Beyond these parts there are some other common threads appearing throughout that are not exactly rules.
One that somewhat connects the author’s personal and scientific development is exponential growth… his AUM and alphas have grown up to now exponentially, coinciding coincidentally with exponential growth in accumulated data and our ability to process them. Another thought is ‘talent arbitrage’: talent is cheaper in developing countries. And in a different direction the influence of his father, Thomas Peterffy and Izzy Englander on him and the origin of his rules.
Finally, if you are a quant and think of reading the book in seeking alpha: borrow it and read the final chapter.
He mentions they were arguing for years at WorldQuant whether they should trust a few well-performing alphas or many weaker alphas. The author ended the debate by arguing for the quantifiable goal of producing exponentially more but weak alphas—diversification and importantly protection from crowding! By training and churning out developing countries’ talent to pursue this goal, exactly in the way manufacturing has done with manual labour in the past decades, I would confidently claim he was indeed (still is?) much ahead of his time. Plus a lot of mean reversion.
To conclude there are quite a few interesting passages in the book (obstacles as information, Fischer Black vs Value Line etc.). The style is terse, the pace rapid but the presentation meandering and haphazard. I think most will find some value in the rules. The book could best function as an superficial introduction to the daily work and the challenges faced by buy-side quants regarding big data, signal vs noise, alpha decay, correlations etc. motivated by episodes in science and the author's life. However the most interesting point of the book is the author: he comes off as modest and measured, introspective, inquisitive, uncertain at times but persistent and methodical. Sufficiently serves one of the reasons for reading an autobiographical book.
I trust different people will read the book with different things in mind but overall it is an abridged version of his professional development. Reflecting on it, he tries to uncover general rules and he comes up with one ‘UnRule’: all rules can fail. Thirdly he motivates a lot of his narrative with extensive forays in the history of computer science and biology, and to a lesser degree maths, physics and economics.
Thus the book is part autobiography, part ‘self-help’ book and part science history book.
It is very short to expand on deep thoughts—think of it as a one-hour presentation, writ with some extra verbosity (the author is a vocal advocate of the Laconic mode of communication), and I’m sure he decided to publish it based on his ‘opportunities rule’, although once published he cannot cut back on his reputational losses—as per another of his rules.
Unfortunately none of the three tropes of the book are entirely satisfactory.
The autobiography part is about a child of a refugee family who becomes successful through honest work and persistence. The story would fit many immigrants that have worked to a comfortable living in the USA. The author of course being by many metrics more successful than most is partly the reason many read this book. It is fortunate that the author did not claim to be a genius, but merely a hard worker (as per one of his rules: always thinking about his work).
I am not an expert in self-help books but the rules might help some people to focus. They are not exactly rules but frequent (some happened only once) occurrences in the author’s life, abstracted and codified. Most of them are again completely cliched—persistence, openness to opportunities, etc. Some of them are actually worthy of further thought (e.g. obstacles are information: when one hits an obstacle perhaps one shouldn't try harder to overcome it; it might signify that there is something wrong with one’s approach). The ‘UnRule’—the rule to rule them all—is actually just a reminder that rules do not work, but are guidelines that help drive one to a desirable direction (much like his rule of planning and setting goals for the future, well knowing one will not get there). Probably good advice both for people that follow rules and those that don’t.
Finally, the science history part might be inspiring for non-scientific or younger people—a lot of it is common knowledge, but there are so many mentions that most will learn something new. It does add somewhat to the arguments but more than that I would say that it is a testament to the author’s affiliation with computer science: mainly Manhattan project computer development and simulations (John von Neumann, Ulam, Monte Carlo algorithms etc.) the latest issues related to computational breakthroughs and ‘big data’ and inference problems in biology-DNA sequencing-personalized medicine, and occasionally finance, economics, complex networks etc.
Beyond these parts there are some other common threads appearing throughout that are not exactly rules.
One that somewhat connects the author’s personal and scientific development is exponential growth… his AUM and alphas have grown up to now exponentially, coinciding coincidentally with exponential growth in accumulated data and our ability to process them. Another thought is ‘talent arbitrage’: talent is cheaper in developing countries. And in a different direction the influence of his father, Thomas Peterffy and Izzy Englander on him and the origin of his rules.
Finally, if you are a quant and think of reading the book in seeking alpha: borrow it and read the final chapter.
He mentions they were arguing for years at WorldQuant whether they should trust a few well-performing alphas or many weaker alphas. The author ended the debate by arguing for the quantifiable goal of producing exponentially more but weak alphas—diversification and importantly protection from crowding! By training and churning out developing countries’ talent to pursue this goal, exactly in the way manufacturing has done with manual labour in the past decades, I would confidently claim he was indeed (still is?) much ahead of his time. Plus a lot of mean reversion.
To conclude there are quite a few interesting passages in the book (obstacles as information, Fischer Black vs Value Line etc.). The style is terse, the pace rapid but the presentation meandering and haphazard. I think most will find some value in the rules. The book could best function as an superficial introduction to the daily work and the challenges faced by buy-side quants regarding big data, signal vs noise, alpha decay, correlations etc. motivated by episodes in science and the author's life. However the most interesting point of the book is the author: he comes off as modest and measured, introspective, inquisitive, uncertain at times but persistent and methodical. Sufficiently serves one of the reasons for reading an autobiographical book.
February 23, 2019
I enjoyed listening to this book immensely. I loved both the storyline of the memoir and the thoughts on developing robust trading and health-enhancing systems. I had to read some parts twice (and I will probably read them later again) - I enjoyed them so much, esp. the endings of the last several chapters. One of my key takeaways from this book is: develop as many independent alphas as possible, alphas - understood as independent trading systems, as well as independent views, ideas, beliefs, insights in any scientific area of human life.
January 5, 2019
หนังสือที่เล่าถึงการเดินทางของ Igor Tulchinsky ผู้ก่อตั้ง WorldQuant หนังสือเล่าถึงแนวความคิดของ Igor ที่มีต่อข้อมูล การสร้าง Alpha ของบริษัท และการปรัชญาของการใช้ข้อมูล หนังสือไม่ได้ลงรายละเอียดขั้นตอนของการสร้าง Alpha เพียงแค่แนวความคิดคร่าว ๆ เท่านั้น โดยรวมแล้วอ่านง่าย ไม่ซับซ้อน แต่ไม่ได้ลงดีเทลเยอะนัก
June 19, 2024
Hoped for more insights into the AI-driven algos behind WorldQuant. Still a decent read nonetheless — a glimpse into Tulchinsky's inspiring backstory and a starter prospectus on the world of hedge funds.
Read
February 3, 2020Very relaxing and inspirational. The book makes you feel as if the best is yet to come - extremely motivating when it comes to studying mathematics.
August 15, 2020
This book was gifted to Milken Conference attendees a couple years back. I read it to get it off my shelf and, as it turns out, I quite enjoyed it.
May 4, 2025
Some interesting parts
December 27, 2019
The complete title of Igor Tulchinsky’s book reads: “The Unrules: Man, Machines And The Quest To Master Markets” Reads complicated? You bet it does. The book also has a foreword by Michael Milken. The founder, Chairman and CEO of WorldQuant, Igor Tulchinsky is a multi-faceted personality. His resume reads like chunks of genius running amok. A Masters in Computer Science from the University of Texas in just nine months, an MBA from Wharton, trysts with being a venture capitalist and employment as a scientist at AT & T Bell Laboratories amongst others. All non-believers may please make a bee line to his profile on LinkedIn!
However, it is not just Tulchinsky’s resume that makes for some complex reading. “The Unrules” which doubles up as a quasi-memoir-cum-bytes of investing wisdom-cum-power of computing-cum-selected scientific chronology, at times makes your head spin and reel. Tulchinsky begins his book with the lines, “people who know me well are aware that I am a man of few words. In fact, I joke that you only have so many words in life, and when you use them up, you die.” Perusing some passages in this book, makes the reader firstly realise, as to why the author is a man of few words and secondly, why it is preferable that he remain that way! At times genius struggles to make itself understood in language that is simple and in concepts that are fundamental.
“The Unrules” is a contrasting mix of enthusiasm and exasperation. While the parts dealing with Tulchinky’s emigration from Russia to the United States make for some inspiring reading, his holding forth on the employ and importance of algorithms and architectures in the world of finance leaves one dizzy with confusion. Expounding on esoteric concepts such as the von Neumann architecture and the Black Scholes Model, Tulchinsky succeeds in losing all but the most technologically savvy and mathematically inclined ‘quants’ who also happened to be disguised as readers!
My personal pet-peeve is undoubtedly the Chapter entitled, “Waves”. Consider the following sentences from this Chapter: “for many years waves in water were seen as a linear phenomenon consisting of the combination of sinusoidal elements. “Sinusoidal” is derived from the word ‘sine’, which is a serpentine curve, often repeated like those pond ripples. In this context linear means, if you have two waves, each with different attributes (wavelength, frequency, velocity, amplitude at the peak), and you combine them, you simply add the separate heights of the predecessor waves to calculate the height of the resulting wave.” P.H.E.W!
Reading this book is like alternating between role playing a mendicant who is serenely stoned and a hardworking under privileged youth who in spite of all his travails is defiant in the conviction that the world is his Oyster. While tidbits of wisdom such as “Blame no one else. Minimize regrets”; “Don’t compromise. Play to your strengths.”; and “Obstacles are information” suffuse hope and a sense of anticipation, these sporadic pieces are obfuscated by and hidden in between an ocean of esoterica!
“The Unrules” is thus a queer combination of Albert Einstein and Don Quixote. While the Don Quixote bits spur you into charging ahead and taking on the world, regardless of its threatening windmills, the Einsteinian bits are alas lost in a relentless surge of high and powerful waves!
Maybe Mr. Tulchinsky should start speaking more!
However, it is not just Tulchinsky’s resume that makes for some complex reading. “The Unrules” which doubles up as a quasi-memoir-cum-bytes of investing wisdom-cum-power of computing-cum-selected scientific chronology, at times makes your head spin and reel. Tulchinsky begins his book with the lines, “people who know me well are aware that I am a man of few words. In fact, I joke that you only have so many words in life, and when you use them up, you die.” Perusing some passages in this book, makes the reader firstly realise, as to why the author is a man of few words and secondly, why it is preferable that he remain that way! At times genius struggles to make itself understood in language that is simple and in concepts that are fundamental.
“The Unrules” is a contrasting mix of enthusiasm and exasperation. While the parts dealing with Tulchinky’s emigration from Russia to the United States make for some inspiring reading, his holding forth on the employ and importance of algorithms and architectures in the world of finance leaves one dizzy with confusion. Expounding on esoteric concepts such as the von Neumann architecture and the Black Scholes Model, Tulchinsky succeeds in losing all but the most technologically savvy and mathematically inclined ‘quants’ who also happened to be disguised as readers!
My personal pet-peeve is undoubtedly the Chapter entitled, “Waves”. Consider the following sentences from this Chapter: “for many years waves in water were seen as a linear phenomenon consisting of the combination of sinusoidal elements. “Sinusoidal” is derived from the word ‘sine’, which is a serpentine curve, often repeated like those pond ripples. In this context linear means, if you have two waves, each with different attributes (wavelength, frequency, velocity, amplitude at the peak), and you combine them, you simply add the separate heights of the predecessor waves to calculate the height of the resulting wave.” P.H.E.W!
Reading this book is like alternating between role playing a mendicant who is serenely stoned and a hardworking under privileged youth who in spite of all his travails is defiant in the conviction that the world is his Oyster. While tidbits of wisdom such as “Blame no one else. Minimize regrets”; “Don’t compromise. Play to your strengths.”; and “Obstacles are information” suffuse hope and a sense of anticipation, these sporadic pieces are obfuscated by and hidden in between an ocean of esoterica!
“The Unrules” is thus a queer combination of Albert Einstein and Don Quixote. While the Don Quixote bits spur you into charging ahead and taking on the world, regardless of its threatening windmills, the Einsteinian bits are alas lost in a relentless surge of high and powerful waves!
Maybe Mr. Tulchinsky should start speaking more!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews