Jupiter as seen by Juno's spacecraft in September 2017. NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstdt/Sen Doran NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstdt/Sen Doran
Hayden Burgoyne, a NASA engineer, spends his nights wagering cryptocurrency on stock picks.
Bloomberg reported that he is part of an online tournament hosted and funded by crowdsourced-fund Numerai.
"We trade stocks and we do a better job than the best hedge funds," Numerai, the founder of Numerai, stated.
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An engineer at NASA, 32 years old, bets cryptocurrency on stocks that he believes will outperform the market. His hobby has paid off.
Hayden Burgoyne is a spacecraft builder who works day to explore Jupiter's moons. He picks stocks that he believes will outperform and bets cryptocurrency in an online trading tournament against thousands.
Bloomberg News reported Burgoyne’s nighttime hobbies in an article entitled "Crowdsourced Quant Backed By Paul Tudor Jones Rides The Crypto Wave" by Justina Le. According to Burgoyne, his hobby is more lucrative than others because it has paid for his wedding and honeymoon in South America.
The tournament is being organized by San Francisco hedge fund Numerai. Richard Craib, the 34-year old founder, told Insider that around 3,500 people are participating.
The so-called Numerai Tournament crowdsources amateur quants to evaluate market data and stake cryptocurrency called Numeraire on stock picks. They are then rewarded with more Numeraire based upon their performance.
Craib said that there is so much hype around crypto, but that "we have actually used it to accomplish something in the real-world."
Insider was told by Craib that the 2 million Numeraires the firm has awarded so far are worth approximately $90 million. This makes the digital asset about $45 per piece.
Burgoyne, who is based in Los Angeles County told Bloomberg that he now holds 630 tokens on his stock bets.
Craib stated that some people have made the tournament an important part of their income. He said that some people have invested half a million dollars in their models to make $50,000 a week if they did well.
Craib stated in a Wired article that he had the idea while working at a South African asset management company where he worked on machine learning algorithms. Craib's firm provides all data to recruits and allows them to create machine learning models without really understanding what they are doing.
Craib stated to Insider that "we trade stocks and we're doing better than the best hedge fund."
According to Numerai's Medium post, the crowdsourced fund beat many others. It rose 8% last year while others struggled. Craib said that the fund has risen 9% this year as of August.
Bloomberg reported that billionaire Paul Tudor Jones has given backing to Numerai, as well as Howard Morgan, an ex-executive at Renaissance Technologies.
