AFTAs 2021: Best analytics initiative—Charles Schwab Investment Advisory

- By Waters AFTAs
- 02 Dec 2021

OVERVIEW

Charles Schwab’s ability to scale and publish new model results was a choke point and their formats and exploration features were designed and developed disparately.

The firm’s QuantScape unifies the model result representation and data services used in the dissemination of model results.

Financial consultants are in need of intuitive tools to interrogate thousands of financial model results on a weekly basis across a spectrum of global equities, ETFs, and mutual funds to support portfolio investment decisions.

THE SOLUTION

Quantscape replaces legacy model output distribution and analysis mechanisms with an intuitive user interface powered by a modern technology stack.

The design starts with a flexible hierarchical data model that supports drilldown into the multifactor quant model results.

This data model feeds modern technical frameworks inclusive of MongoDB (database), GraphQL (data query), AG Grid (data exploration), and Angular (data presentation).

“The QuantScape application is the outcome of team empowerment and autonomy. Schwab Center for Financial Research (SCFR) identified gaps in our operational workflow and model result exploration capabilities. The tech team embraced the problem space and worked with stakeholders to identify the vision that resolved the issues. Over the course of a year and several design iterations the application came to life and is now considered central to all model operations. Innovations like this come from the ingenuity and skill that we are fortunate to have within SCFR Technology. They are worthy of public recognition and our internal gratitude.”

WHAT’S TO COME

The product roadmap includes ratings block management workflow, input data exploration, weekly publication approval workflows, operational dashboards and more.

The QuantScape platform will grow in terms of the number of quant models it serves and depth of capabilities offered.

WHY THEY WON

QuantScape has provided a platform that allows for the digitization of quant model development workflows. There is a growing need from financial consultants to improve quant model transparency and model output filtering. Charles Schwab Investment Advisory has identified this need and is working to provide for it.

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