A quant trading terminal is software that keeps market data, company figures, models, portfolio risk and the record of your decisions in one place, so an investment team can go from new information to a decision without rebuilding the picture by hand each time.
How it differs from a broker app
A broker app is built to place orders: a quote, a chart and a buy button. A terminal is built to decide what to do. It holds the data behind a view, the model that turns that data into a value, the risk the view adds to a portfolio, and the reasons you acted. Many professionals use both.
What a terminal includes
- Market data. Prices, volumes and indices for the markets you cover, and the time each figure became known.
- Company figures. The numbers companies report in their filings, kept as reported, with restatements marked rather than written over.
- Models. A company’s figures and your assumptions, versioned so you can see what changed and when.
- Portfolio and risk. What you hold, how concentrated it is, and how much of the book a single event reaches.
- Research and a record. Notes, reports and the decisions taken, with the evidence behind them.
What is changing: from what happened to what it means for you
Terminals have always been good at the first question: what moved the market today. The harder question is what moved you — which of your positions a filing touched, which assumption it changed, and what that does to the book. At most funds the answer to that one is still assembled by hand every morning.
The newer approach treats the chain as one system: evidence, model, thesis, portfolio, decision. A filing’s figures become proposed model changes. The thesis that depends on those figures is re-checked. The exposure is recalculated. The decision is recorded with what was known at the time.
Where Quantify Terminal fits
We build Quantify Terminal on that chain. Overnight it reads the filings, prices and news that land against your book, and by morning the brief says which assumption each document moved and which held. Model changes are proposed from the figures a company tagged in its own filing, with the previous value beside the new one, and wait for your approval. You write each thesis as assumptions with conditions, and Quantify Terminal re-checks them when the figures they read move. Decisions are recorded with the model and thesis version on screen, and Replay reads back what was known then.
Underneath is the rest of a desk: markets, screeners, options, bonds, funds, macro, portfolio and risk. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and is in early access for funds and investment teams, by application. See the product.
Who uses one
Analysts who cover a list of companies, portfolio managers who own the decisions, and small funds that want one system instead of a terminal, a spreadsheet and a folder of notes. If cost is the question, see what a Bloomberg Terminal costs and the alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to code to use a quant trading terminal?
Not usually. Most terminals are point and click, and some add Python or a formula language for those who want it. In Quantify Terminal a thesis is written as plain conditions on figures, not code.
Is a quant trading terminal the same as an algorithmic trading platform?
No. An algorithmic trading platform runs strategies against a broker. A terminal is where the research and the decision happen; some include strategy tools, but that is not their centre.
What does a quant trading terminal cost?
From free tiers for retail tools to about $31,980 a seat a year for a Bloomberg Terminal. Enterprise platforms such as FactSet and LSEG Workspace are priced by quote.