Quant funds are a type of hedge or mutual fund that rely on computer programs – not human hunches – to detect buying opportunities in stocks, bonds or other financial instruments.

Run by Wall Street’s best and brightest to invest the money of millionaires, deep-pocketed retirement funds and other wealthy clients, these quant funds employ as many computer scientists and mathematicians as traders. Their computer models, or algorithms, are closely guarded secrets.

The funds produced stellar results for decades but hemorrhaged boatloads of red ink over the past few weeks as these brainiacs failed to program their computers to anticipate recent volatility.