I am the only one who practices magic: I practice magic in the city

Chapter 371 New Generation Aladdin System (5049)

There are only two levels left to the ninth level where one can cast fifth-ring spells!

I have finally been promoted to an intermediate wizard. There is no bottleneck between level eight and level nine. I just need to work hard. With the daily Baphomet training method and the faith transformation of the God of Desire model, I should be able to break through to level nine in less than a year.

Fang Yu in the etheric world touched his boundless messenger and clenched his fists.

Chen Wanyu's baby tooth is in the Boundless Messenger.

Fang Yu looked at the shadows around him and saw Jiang Nanzhen looking around with a suspicious look on his face.

As an angel of desire, Jiang Nanzhen is immune to enchantment spells below the fifth ring. "Ordinary" has no effect on her. She can always see Fang Yu standing in the back row of the conference room.

In addition, as a devout believer of Fang Yu, as long as she is not too far away from Fang Yu, she can have some instinctive sense of Fang Yu.

Just now, she suddenly saw Fang Yu suddenly disappeared!

Not only did the person disappear, but he could not sense Fang Yu's presence at all.

Suddenly, Jiang Nanzhen felt a pulling sensation in his body, and then his body became lighter and he entered a state of weightlessness. Everything in the surrounding space turned into translucent shadows, and the space seemed to be filled with thick gray fog, and he could not see clearly a few meters away.

None of the enthusiastic subscribers around noticed Jiang Nanzhen's disappearance. Only Robert Capito, who had been secretly paying attention to Jiang Nanzhen, looked a little confused, but then returned to normal.

As for the other three guys, they were so excited that they were registering for this group of fanatical institutional investors, and they were completely unaware of Jiang Nanzhen's disappearance.

Who would have thought that the three of us would become so famous on Wall Street!
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This is where?

Although Jiang Nanzhen became an angel of desire with divinity and knew how to use divine power, she had no arcane knowledge or common sense, and had never heard of the existence of the etheric world.

Through the thick fog, you can vaguely see the shadows of things two or three meters away, but you can't see anything farther away.

This is also a characteristic of the etheric world. The stronger the mental power of the creature that enters, the farther it can see.

With Jiang Nanzhen's current mental strength level of less than 10, he can see two or three meters, and he is still affected by the bonus of celestial beings.

The Etheric Plane is different from the Astral Plane in that creatures from the real world can enter it, but if no one provides them with the magic power to maintain their existence in the Etheric Plane, they will be kicked out by the Etheric Plane.

"I'll give you half a year to join the BlackRock Executive Committee." Fang Yu suddenly appeared beside Jiang Nanzhen, lifting up Jiang Nanzhen's small and fair chin.

Jiang Nanzhen was delighted to see Fang Yu appear. Just as she was about to ask Fang Yu where he was, the powerful aura coming from Fang Yu made her tremble uncontrollably.

Ah~ The Lord is really becoming more and more powerful~
Jiang Nanzhen's breathing couldn't help but become heavy, and her face pressed against Fang Yu's chest.

"Lord, your command is the meaning of my existence."

Fang Yu pinched it with satisfaction. Just as he was about to send Jiang Nanzhen back to the real world, he suddenly found that they were both suspended in the air in the etheric world.

I don't think I've unlocked the weightlessness scene yet? I originally thought I'd save this experience for manned space flight, but I didn't expect it to be unlocked now.

Would you like to try it?
In the real world, Robert Capito is three meters away, which is a bit exciting.

Fang Yu stroked his chin and thought about it.

ten minutes later.

Robert Capito, who was still in the Schubert conference room, didn't know why he felt so upset.
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"Mr. President, this 404 Fund is just a newly established small company. I don't think they have real acquisition value now."

"Besides, this is too risky. The connection between this company and Yuzu Technology is too close. No one can guarantee..." Goldstein, BlackRock's Chief Operating Officer and Global Head of Solutions, frowned and shook his head slightly.

Goldstein didn't address Robert Capito by name because his name is also Robert.

Robert Goldstein.

He was one of the few people within the BlackRock Executive Committee who was most wary of Yuzu Technology. It was he who went to Xingang to negotiate with Zhou Shuzi.

As a result, within a few days, the surveillance incident in the Xingang office broke out, making him extremely embarrassed.

Although his behavior was decent at the time, it was obvious that he would not receive any good comments after it was posted on social media.

When Robert Capito proposed the acquisition intention against 404 at the Executive Committee meeting, Robert Goldstein was one of the most resolute opponents.

He has no conflicts with Robert Capito, on the contrary, just as Robert Capito is a staunch supporter of Larry Fink, he is also a staunch supporter of Robert Capito, and the relationship between the two is comparable to that of teacher and student.

Because of this, he could speak out against Robert Capito's opinions, and he didn't want his teacher to make an irreparable mistake due to momentary confusion.

Robert Capito has a calm temperament, and people can't see his ambition to be Emperor Wen of Wei at all: "Rob, I didn't say I want to buy them now, but they are indeed worthy of attention, aren't they?"

"They are still mainly doing short-term arbitrage. My view is that if the three new funds they launched this time all achieve the returns they advertised, we need to make defensive acquisitions."

"This suggestion is not based on their business situation, but on the advantages of the Woking system they developed in identifying risk factors. It can greatly improve Aladdin's identification of risk factors and make up for our biggest shortcoming."

“Of course, whether the Woking system can make up for Aladdin’s shortcomings in risk factor identification still requires more professional research and analysis.”

"Ben, from your professional perspective, after studying the Woking system over the past two days, do you have any opinions?"

Robert Capito turned and asked Bennett Goleb, who had a similar hairstyle and age to him.

Bennett Goleb is the chief risk officer of BlackRock. Like Larry Fink and Robert Capito, he also worked at First Boston Corporation. He is one of the eight founders of BlackRock and a professional specializing in financial risk control. He holds a certain status not only in the financial world but also in academia.

In order to talk more with Jiang Nanzhen and ask for her contact information, Robert Capito made an excuse to ask Si Lingsi for a temporary visitor account of the Woking system. Unexpectedly, the other party actually gave it to him in the end.

Three days of temporary visitor privileges to the Woking system.

Robert Capito went up to experience it that day. As he already had a tendency in his subconscious mind, he judged after just a brief experience that the Woking system could basically beat Aladdin in the field of risk factor identification.

Even including MSCI's Barra.

He then handed the three-day temporary visitor account to Bennett Goleb.

The next day, he asked Jiang Nanzhen out for dinner, using the excuse that he wanted to learn more about the Woking system and Silingsi.

Of course, in order to cover up his tracks, he also specially invited the three guys from Si Lingsi.

He didn't remember a word of what the three of them said during the whole meal, and his mind was filled with the image of Jiang Nanzhen.

Bennett Goleb turned on the computer and wrinkled his nose habitually: "Everyone, I must remind you of one thing. AI is here."

“Yes, we have discussed this topic countless times in the past two months. But this time, I can tell you with certainty that when factor models and neural networks are combined, the effect produced is not the same as one plus one equals two.”

"It's multiplication! Even an exponential improvement!"

Two executive committee members were muttering in their hearts, isn't one multiplied by one still one? Even if it's an exponent, one to the ten thousandth power is also one. But obviously, everyone understood what Bennett-Golbe meant, and no one, the argumentative ETC, automatically argued.

"Aladdin's current model is limited in its understanding of the nonlinear interaction of factors, while the Woking system can dynamically adjust the weights. Do you know what this means?"

“This not only means an improvement in the accuracy of risk factor identification, but also means that even in the face of a black swan event, the Woking system can automatically respond within 0.001 seconds, minimizing the losses caused by the black swan!”

"Since it is just a guest account, I have no way to make real transactions, but judging from the results of simulated transactions, the accuracy of risk factor identification in the Woking system is quite high. Compared with Aladdin's risk management module, it is a product of two completely different eras."

"We have to admit that a very tough opponent has emerged in the field of risk management."

“Fortunately, the company does not seem to be aware of this and currently only applies this large model to simple short-term arbitrage.”

“In fact, this model can play a greater role in the management of our iShares ETF passive strategy, the trading of financial derivatives, and even the fixed income market, liquidity tracking, cross-market arbitrage and foreign exchange management.”

“What a waste!”

"This is a summary of the communication between Daniel and I. You can take a look at it."

Bennett Goleb projected the computer screen onto a 100-inch screen so that everyone in the Executive Committee's dedicated conference room could see it clearly.

Bennett-Gollob made a comparison chart of Aladdin, Barra, Axioma and Woking systems in terms of risk factor identification and automated trading.

It looks like it is being compared with the models on Autohome.

It can be seen that the Woking system is almost overwhelming in these two areas!

The Daniel that Bennett Goleb mentioned is Daniel Gurvich, the head of operations and maintenance of Aladdin systems. Daniel Gurvich's direct report is Chief Operating Officer Robert Goldstein.

Robert Goldstein's frown deepened.

Bennett Goleb's PPT is too shocking. Compared with the Woking system, the Aladdin system is like the heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages in terms of risk management module and automatic trading, while the Woking system is like a self-propelled artillery.

A generation gap has completely formed.

In this case, if the Aladdin system does not make corresponding adjustments and changes, or the Woking system is taken over by other asset management companies, BlackRock will have no choice but to dissolve.

Robert Capito said calmly: "You have seen that we are completely behind in technology. If the only technological gap between us and Barra is just technology, we can beat them with scale and operation model."

"But now, AI has arrived. You can all clearly see that the Woking system has an overwhelming advantage in risk management modules and automatic trading systems, and the 404 Fund holds all the intellectual property rights of the Woking system. This is why I proposed to acquire the 404 Fund."

"The new generation of Aladdin system based on the AI ​​big model, don't you think this is exciting?"

"I've had people calculate that if we replace the current version with the AI-based Aladdin system, we can save at least 70% of our labor costs, most of the technical stack employees can be laid off, and fixed asset investment will be lower."

Hearing Robert Capito's words, almost all the executive-level senior executives were shocked.

An Aladdin system based entirely on AI?

Doesn't that mean using the Woking system as the kernel to replace the current Aladdin system? ?
"Derek, is it possible for us to develop this system ourselves? I remember you said at the executive committee meeting at the beginning of the month that we are also exploring this aspect and have achieved certain results. How long will it take before it can be put into practical use? How much will it cost? Can the effect be comparable to the Woking system?" Robert Goldstein frowned and asked Derek Stein, who was sitting in the corner of the conference room.

Derek Stein is BlackRock's global head of business operations and technology, and is also a member of the executive committee. He also oversees part of the research and development team of the Aladdin system.

In fact, after the Orange model was open sourced, Derekstein had already asked the R&D team to work on the combination of AI and factor models. They stumbled across a large neural network model, but the convergence was very poor. Currently, even simple arbitrage will result in calculation errors, not to mention practicality.

Derek Stan looked embarrassed: "Rob, this..."

“Well, we may need more research and exploration. Oh, and we also need to recruit people. You know, talents in deep learning are very expensive now, and it is difficult to recruit suitable talents with our salary budget…”

Well, when I heard this, there was no hope at all.

BlackRock's basic salary level is indeed not high, and it is a well-known stingy company on Wall Street. In the past two years, it has mainly relied on this reputation to attract outstanding talents who want to accumulate qualifications.

For financial coder-level employees, BlackRock can only pay around 15 Malaysian dollars.

But what is the price of deep learning talents now?

Basically, the starting price offered by other companies is more than twice that of BlackRock.

But it’s not that there are no people in the company who understand deep learning and big data. There are quite a few people in several technical groups who understand these things.

These people made a rough assessment and concluded that if they only relied on self-research, even with huge investments, they would not be able to achieve any results within three to five years.

After all, BlackRock is essentially a greedy financial company. Even if it has more programmers, the things in its genes cannot be changed.

For example, in addition to having less technical talent than the big Internet companies, BlackRock's technology stack is also very weak in its ability to promote new technologies. Often, a certain technology has been used in the market for many years before BlackRock begins to apply it in internal development.

The same is true for development tools. Being 2-3 years behind the big manufacturers is considered good, and being 4-5 years behind is normal.

Until now, Aladdin has not had an app that can view key data on mobile phones.

It is conceivable that if we only rely on self-development, let alone the new Aladdin system based on the large model, even

Cooperating with Google's Deepmind or OpenAi, which has just modified the Orange Model and specializes in the crisis of intelligent machines, is also an option. However, there are more problems with this kind of cooperation between large companies across fields, and the efficiency and effectiveness cannot be guaranteed.

Goldstein pursed his lips and said, "I still believe that we should be cautious. We should not make any rash decisions before we are sure that the Woking system is safe."

Robert Capito glanced at Goldstein and said lightly, "Of course we need to be cautious, but Rob, don't forget that we grew up in crises. Without risk, there is no profit. What you are worried about is the technical risk, and we can completely avoid this risk through stronger pre-acquisition technical review."

Then, Robert Capito turned his head to the left and looked at Larry Fink at the end of the conference table: "Larry, I think we should continue to track the status of 404 and prepare an acquisition plan in advance."

After listening to Robert Capito's words, Larry Fink, who had been silent but in deep thought, said: "You know, I have never resisted the advancement of technology. I prefer to buy it rather than develop it ourselves."

Larry Fink is right. In order to maintain the dominance of the Aladdin system, BlackRock spends hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars every year to acquire software companies that have advantages in certain specific fields. Some are defensive acquisitions, while more are integrated into the Aladdin system and become part of the Aladdin system.

Among them, there are also several Da Zhou companies, but because they are not 2C companies targeting the general public, the public does not know about them.

"But I am more concerned about another issue now, which is if AI is used to build the core of the next-generation Aladdin system. What impact will it have on our ESG strategy? Will it be detrimental to the promotion of ESG? This is a question we must consider."

Robert Capito smiled after hearing what Larry Fink said. “Larry, this was also my biggest concern. I have consulted many professionals. We can train AI through supervised learning based on the specific needs of users. So, we can set an ESG filter at the trading terminal level, just like we do now, and only track assets with ESG ratings above BB.”

"Also." Robert Capito's heart was pounding, but he said calmly on the surface, "I just learned that one of the developers of the Woking system, Jane Jiang, was recruited by John Doe into the company. I learned that she is a staunch supporter of ESG. I am planning to transfer her from the alternative investment department to the group."

Larry Fink had great trust in Robert Capito. After listening to Robert Capito's words, he nodded and said, "You are very meticulous. Let's do as you say."

Goldstein's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but under Robert Capito's gaze, he said nothing.

Time flies so fast.

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(End of this chapter)