Risk models haven’t aged well. For decades, financial advisors have leaned on bell curves and backward-looking models that underestimated the true chaos of global markets—until crises like 2008 and Covid-19 exposed just how fragile those assumptions were.

Now, Amplify Platform is offering a rewrite. The firm today unveiled QuantumRisk™, an AI-powered risk analysis engine built to help advisors and clients navigate the kind of market tail events that textbooks tend to gloss over.

The Fat Tail Advantage

At the core of QuantumRisk is the work of Dr. Ron Piccinini, a specialist in “fat tail risk” modeling. Instead of assuming markets behave neatly, QuantumRisk leans on high-performance computing and GPUs to simulate millions of potential outcomes in real time—scenarios that reflect both likelihood and severity of extreme events.

“Legacy risk tools were built for a market that no longer exists,” Piccinini said. “We designed our engine to reflect how markets actually behave, not how theory says they should.”

That means risk scores aren’t an abstract exercise anymore—they’re tied directly to real-world volatility.

A New Risk Score for a New Era

QuantumRisk assigns portfolios and securities a risk score from 0 to 1,000, calibrated against the historical tail risk of the S&P 500. The higher the score, the higher the exposure. The goal: give advisors a clear, standardized measure of portfolio fragility that works across asset classes.

For clients, that translates to more transparency and fewer vague warnings about “volatility.” For advisors, it’s a potential competitive edge: a tool to demonstrate clarity and control when markets inevitably misbehave.

Features Built for the Frontline

Key features of QuantumRisk include:

• Proprietary Simulation Engine: Runs millions of outcomes in under a second—no correlation matrix required.

• Greater Transparency: Differentiates risks across conservative portfolios and leveraged strategies alike.

• Visual, Client-Ready Outputs: Delivers graphic-rich reports that advisors can use in client meetings.

As Vickie Lewin, Amplify’s Chief Growth Officer, put it: “QuantumRisk is more than an upgrade. It’s about enhancing client trust. We’re embedding a modern risk score across the client journey so advisors can build resilience, set expectations, and foster confidence.”

Industry Context: Catching Up to Reality

Risk analytics has been one of fintech’s lagging categories. While AI is reshaping areas like customer personalization and trading strategies, risk models have largely stayed stuck in 20th-century math. Amplify’s move is part of a broader trend of fintechs leveraging AI-native architectures to modernize core financial infrastructure.

If QuantumRisk delivers on its promise, it could push rivals like BlackRock’s Aladdin or MSCI RiskMetrics to rethink their approach—or risk being seen as outdated in a market where volatility no longer looks like a gentle curve.

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