How RBC Capital Markets built an in-house AI trading platform
By
Shary Mudassir and Foteini Agrafioti
Published December 1, 2020
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1 min read
Business Insider published a feature story following an interview with Shary Mudassir, Co-Head of Global Equities Execution and Foteini Agrafioti, Chief Science Officer at RBC and Head/ Co-Founder of Borealis AI. The article highlights the launch of Aiden, an AI-powered trading platform that uses the computational power of deep reinforcement learning in pursuit of improved trading results and insights for clients.
“Aiden has shown the ability to navigate the challenges of a fluid and dynamic market in real time, without the need for continuous recoding like traditional algorithms would need. That’s because of its ability to learn and adapt through hundreds of data inputs that it’s analyzing in real time, tens of millions decisions that it makes of the course of that order, and then taking actions and learning”
- Shary Mudassir
The Aiden® platform was developed jointly by RBC Capital Markets and Borealis AI, a world-class AI research center created by RBC, as traders and AI scientists worked side-by-side to create the initial bold concept and deliver a real-world solution. In doing so, both organizations undertook one of the biggest challenges in the field of AI today – applying deep reinforcement learning into a constantly changing environment like equities trading, with measurable and explainable results for its users.
“The biggest challenge was narrowing it into the use case. And that’s why the partnership of scientists, and traders, and technologists works brilliantly well.”
- Foteini Agrafioti
Shary Mudassir
Co-Head of Global Equities Execution, RBC Capital Markets
Since joining RBC Capital Markets in 2009, Shary has helped revolutionize RBC’s Global Electronic Trading business. During his time at the firm, Shary has led the Algorithmic Trading, Electronic Trading and Central Risk Book Trading teams in Canada prior to his appointment to a global mandate. Shary also oversees the Artificial Intelligence team in Global Equities focusing on the development of trading capabilities using AI for RBC’s clients. Prior to joining RBC, Shary founded a software consulting firm focused on Distributed Computing. Shary holds a B.Sc. in Software Engineering (Distinction) from the University of Victoria and an MBA from the University of Calgary. He recently completed a Master in Predictive Analytics & Data Science at Northwestern University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations.
Foteini Agrafioti
Foteini Agrafiot
Chief Science Officer at RBC and Head/ Co-Founder of Borealis AI
Dr. Agrafioti is the Chief Science Officer at RBC and Head of Borealis AI. She is responsible for RBC’s intellectual property portfolio in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Prior to joining Borealis AI, Foteini founded and served as Chief Technology Officer at Nymi, a biometrics security company and maker of the Nymi wristband.
Foteini is the inventor of HeartID, the first biometric technology to authenticate users based on their unique cardiac rhythms. She is a TED speaker and serves on the editorial review boards of several scientific journals. Foteini was named “Inventor of the Year” in 2012 at the University of Toronto where she received a Doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering and was named one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” for 2017.
AIAidenArtificial IntelligenceBorealisFoteini AgrafiotiShary Mudassir
