Computational biologist making waves as hedge fund quant

New York

HEDGE fund manager Desmond Lun's 21 per cent average return over the last four years springs from an unlikely source - a petri dish of algae.

Mr Lun, 37, is a new kind of quant, combining AI (artificial intelligence) wizardry with old-school biology to trade futures. Although his Taaffeite Capital Management is small, Mr Lun makes a big claim: His research into one of the natural world's most byzantine systems - the biological cell - has given him an edge in untangling the secrets of financial markets.