It seems the natural next step would be to allow non-algorithm writers to invest in algorithms (or a bundle of algorithms), with some fee going to either or both Quantopian or the writer of the algorithm(s). Any chance that's on the roadmap, and if so, when can I expect to be able to crowdsource my investing?
But what you don't get with an index (at least, I don't think you do? I admit my ignorance on this) is the sort of transparency and ability to dig deep into the algorithm(s) that it appears you'd get with something like Quantopian. And possibly the ability to tweak that algorithm. Basically, a market for starter Quantopian algorithms that are more advanced than the samples on the site - I think that's vastly different than an index, and I could see paying for something like that.
Sure you do. All index funds disclose their holdings, and index ETFs show their constituent equities, along with any tracking error from the index being tracked. A long time ago, "proprietary" traders would perform index arbitrage in this fashion.
You mean something like http://www.collective2.com/ ?
One of the difference is that on c2 you can't see the internals of the algo (because it could also be not an algo but somebody deciding how to invest, actually the algo is not implemented on the site but outside, the site only receives buy/sell commands).
