Peter Kostovcik
Co-founder, CTO
Comfort Zone Investments a.s.
Risk situations and their management will show the true character of the personality, not in the most beautiful form but the real essence. By managing these situations, one is constantly improving. Maybe that's why I sought out risks like combat sports, adventure travel to unconventional destinations, or had a passion for the financial markets and their riskiness from a young age. Combined with my studies in mathematics (probability theory), I like to take on the "mad scientist" role, doing practical experiments rather than looking for market situations that fit his beautiful economic theory.
I've never enjoyed the theory, and as it turns out over and over again, even the best economic models fail in practice. A few bad decisions by central bankers, tweets from market manipulators, or just plain political arrogance have wiped out (read: are wiping out) the savings of millions of hard-working people more than once. And this is only a tiny part of the unpredictable risk that is emerging in the market. My partner Petr Tmej and I believe that one path to sustainable investing success is to let intelligent algorithms make investment decisions based on pure science - mathematical statistics, actively managing portfolios, and avoiding human error. By actively managing, the portfolio is constantly adapting to changes in the market, which humans often fail to react to or properly evaluate in the short term.
Our strategies use fundamental logic, which is not enough on its own, so in comes the application of neural networks and other modern artificial intelligence tools, which is my expertise. In my years of experience with financial markets, I have learned to use data mining and machine learning on highly noisy time series. It's not easy to dig into randomness, but it's a challenge, and that's why I enjoy it. I naturally transformed from a mathematician to a developer and data scientist. Today, in addition to expanding our strategies and creating new ones, I'm dedicated to developing and technically leading our team of developers.
In finance, I think everyone needs a fool happy to take a risk and play with it until it translates into an opportunity. Our company offers you these fools so that you don't have to leave your comfort zone and can pursue an activity that fulfills you, just like we do.
My skills:
● Python programming
● Applied mathematics - probability theory, statistics, and optimization
● Machine Learning modeling and AI
● Data processing, finding patterns, creating advanced custom tests, working with noisy time series
● Soft skills: sometimes, I can explain what I do to a layman
● Technical project management - developing business strategies, from ideation to production
Education
2014-2017
Master's Degree
Charles University
Czechia
2011-2014
Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice
Slovakia
Theory of probability
Mathematical Statistics
Econometrics
Economics
Financial Mathematics