With a threshold of 500,000, retail investors can now join the high-frequency quantitative "battle group."

With a wealth threshold of 500,000, can you be a quantitative investor?

Are you willing to participate in this service?

Zi Shitang learned that a securities company recently innovated its business by providing value-added services for retail stock traders to "enhance returns," with robots conducting trading operations.

The introduction of such services represents an expansion of the brokerage business path in the current special market conditions.

What kind of service is this exactly?

And how suitable and risky is it for investors?

Customized Strategy Trading Service

Recently, several large brokerage institutions have recommended the "strategy order" service to retail investors through their official channels.

Promotional materials explain the "strategy order" as a unique feature based on the principles of algorithmic trading, which can intelligently trigger orders based on the investor's preset trading strategies.

According to brokerage trading staff who spoke to Zi Shitang, the above service is aimed at investors participating in individual stock investments. Investors can either customize their own strategies in advance using the brokerage's system, such as setting a profit-taking price when the price reaches a certain level.

Alternatively, they can entrust the brokerage to design enhanced trading strategies based on each investor's portfolio.

"Whether the portfolio's returns can be enhanced depends on the specific stock selection of each investor. Algorithmic trading is carried out based on the portfolio, and not all portfolios are suitable for this enhancement," said a brokerage business department staff member.

Threshold: Assets above 500,000

Most brokerage institutions set the threshold for investor participation at 500,000.

In other words, investors must first have assets exceeding 500,000, then submit their portfolios to the brokerage.

Subsequently, frontline brokerage business personnel will design enhanced algorithmic trading strategies for clients.

This enhanced service is conducted on a daily basis, with some trading days enhancing returns while others may result in losses.

Additionally, the business department staff mentioned that some investors seek robots to "fully" conduct trading for them, designing the investment portfolio from start to finish.

In conclusion, this is a newly emerging trading strategy service.

Brokerage Response to Volatile Markets

Some brokerage professionals told Zi Shitang that the brokerage business departments of securities companies have been affected by volatile markets, with their main revenue being significantly impacted in the past two years. Innovating service models for brokerage clients could create more revenue and profit sources.

Some analysts also believe that considering the current equity market's volatility, if institutions can indeed enhance trading based on clients' stock holdings, it may offer a certain cost-effectiveness.

This service was previously only available for institutional investors and quantitative investment institutions on a one-on-one basis. Now, this algorithm, commonly used by quantitative institutions for algorithmic trading, has entered the realm of ordinary households through brokerage institutions, connecting with retail investors.

Where are the Risks?

However, the testing and risk management of the above strategies clearly have higher thresholds.

Firstly, can the signed clients fully understand the characteristics of algorithmic trading and accept its advantages and disadvantages? Secondly, algorithmic trading has a certain probability of "failure", which includes both profits and losses after the successful implementation of strategies, as well as instances where the strategy may fail to place orders.

A typical example is that in the past few months, brokers serving the US stock market have experienced order failures leading to disputes with clients, and later the related brokers took on the responsibility.

Thirdly, whether all investors with a certain capital threshold, after signing up for the service, can fully understand the risks and fluctuations of this service and accept them willingly.

In other words, this type of business must be accompanied by thorough and in-depth investor education