Lance Levenson

Lance Levenson is a data guy. Although he has a formal background in Astrophysics and Mathematics, he has chosen to use these skills to help companies make better, smarter, and quicker data driven decisions. His career started at Vanguard where he held roles for both client contact and internal process improvement. From there he decided to study Applied Mathematics for Finance and apply these advanced concepts to the capital markets. Since then, he has been a quantitative analyst and data scientist who specializes in statistical investment and trading strategies for all types of tradable securities. He has worked for various trading firms and hedge funds in the Chicago and New York areas, and has extensive experience building and implementing quantitative and predictive models using massive amounts of financial data. Currently he is principal consultant at his firm Makaira Analytics, where he implements advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to design trading strategies, optimize portfolios, and manage risk for financial firms. He is also a faculty member at Northwestern University where he designs and teaches courses on Predictive Analytics and Risk Analytics. When he’s not in front of dozens of computer monitors crunching data, you can find him watching the latest documentaries on Netflix, trying to decide which Chicago coffee shop has the best brew, or wrestling with his two pit bull rescues.