Quant researcher · Entrepreneur · Professor

I solve complex problems at the intersection of data, science, and technology.

I'm Ivan Medovikov — an entrepreneur and an academic specializing in statistical inference with a focus on finance & economics.

Portrait of Ivan Medovikov

About

I take hard, data-driven problems from open question to working system — research, modelling, data infrastructure, and the teams and tools around them. My approach pairs peer‑reviewed statistical methods with two decades of hands-on technical work.

I've co-founded two trading businesses and led systematic strategy development inside $5B+ AUM environments, working across the firm from C‑level executives and clients to technical and analytics teams. I hold a Ph.D. in Financial Econometrics (Western University, 2013) and the CIM designation (2019), and have been a tenured Associate Professor of Economics at Brock University since 2018.

Experience

5Sigma, Inc.

Founder

Founder & Principal

Technical consulting firm serving three verticals: AI integration as a service, data-infrastructure building, and custom modelling and analytics.

Ruken Capital

Co-Founder

Co-Founder · Head of Systematic Strategies & Analytics

Co-founded a proprietary power and natural gas trading business with a former co‑CIO of a major Canadian multi‑strategy hedge fund. Led firm-wide quant tooling — AI integrations, data architecture, trading dashboards — alongside operational work from margin management to exchange access.

Polar Asset Management Partners

$5B+ AUM

Senior Consultant, Systematic Strategy Development · Office of the CIO

Worked directly with the co‑CIO of a $5B+ AUM fund to grow a new line of business: systematic models development, backend data engineering, and AI integrations for the trading desk, while managing the technical and analytical team.

Price Street, Inc.

Co-Founder

Co-Founder & Portfolio Manager

Led development and deployment of a proprietary systematic equity long-short strategy; built all trading, order-management, and execution infrastructure; managed a quant and data-engineering team while running the portfolio hands-on.

Spartan Fund Management

Head of Systematic Strategy Development, Qmetrica Fund

Developed stock-selection and risk models for a large-cap U.S. equity systematic strategy with a multi-year track record of demonstrable alpha.

Research

Dependence modeling, copula methods, and machine learning applied to financial markets — how markets react to news, how risk and contagion propagate, and how analysts' forecasts perform.

Talks & Writing

Software

Research computing

  • Python
  • pandas
  • statsmodels
  • scikit-learn
  • tslearn
  • MATLAB
  • Deep Learning Toolbox
  • Econometrics Toolbox

Trading infrastructure

  • SQL
  • Linux
  • AWS S3/EC2
  • Streamlit
  • OpenAI APIs
  • Refinitiv REDI
  • AlphaDesk

Teaching & Recognition

Tenured Associate Professor of Economics, Brock University — faculty since 2012, tenured 2018.

Faculty of Social Science Excellence in Teaching Award, Brock University, 2016 — a once-in-career, faculty-wide distinction.

Honorary Associate Professor, Discipline of Business Analytics, University of Sydney Business School, 2016.

Referee for 12+ journals, including the Journal of Empirical Finance and Journal of Banking & Finance; reviewer for the Mitacs Accelerate program.