STOCKS | Quant Funds Reject Rumor That South Korea Tech Stocks Drive A-Share Quant Factors

China's A-share market weakened again on July 13 after last Friday's pullback, amid overseas equity volatility and signs of profit-taking pressure in technology assets. According to Jin10, a market rumor circulated widely after the close on July 13 claiming that A-share quantitative strategies had long incorporated South Korean technology stock moves into factor models, triggering chain reactions across different domestic technology sectors. A founder of a quantitative private fund with assets under management exceeding 20 billion yuan said leading domestic quant firms rarely use South Korean data to mine factors, calling the rumor an outsider-written story. The founder added that the quant industry broadly suffered large losses that day and that, based on what he learned after the close, most peers posted negative excess returns. A general manager at another quantitative private fund with assets under management in the tens of billions of yuan also said the rumor was unfair. He argued that if quant firms traded entirely based on rises and falls in overseas technology stocks, they would inevitably generate negative excess returns over the long term, and most quant firms would not do that. He said the industry generally seeks excess returns by identifying and holding high-quality companies.