About Finology
Founded in Seoul in 2023. Built to give independent Korean retail investors access to the same methodological rigour that quantitative research desks apply to Korean equity back-testing — without the Bloomberg terminal price tag.
Why we built this
Woojae Jeon spent several years in quantitative research analyzing systematic rotation strategies across KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ. Sitting on Teheran-ro in Gangnam — where most of Korea's buy-side and asset management firms are concentrated — he had access to institutional-grade tools. But the retail investors and independent researchers he knew did not. They were running their back-tests in spreadsheets or on consumer-grade platforms that modeled KRX trades the same way they would model a US equity: continuous fill, mid-price, no lot constraint.
The gap became undeniable around 2022, when a KOSPI 200 momentum rotation study he was reviewing showed an annualised Sharpe ratio of 1.4 in back-test. When the same strategy parameters were walked forward on live data, it produced a Sharpe closer to 0.6. The difference was not market regime change — it was three things: lot-level slippage that the back-test had ignored, a December 배당락일 (ex-dividend date) mis-alignment that inflated December returns, and a survivorship bias in the constituent list that made 2018–2019 look cleaner than it was.
In 2023, Woojae founded Finology to build the tool that didn't exist: a back-testing engine designed specifically for KOSPI and KOSDAQ reality, transparent about its methodology, and honest about what it can and cannot model. Bootstrapped and independent — no outside capital, no incentive to oversell performance numbers. Finology does not manage money and does not provide investment advice. It provides honest research infrastructure.
The team
Background in quantitative finance with experience in systematic rotation strategy research across Korean equity markets. Founded Finology in 2023 to give independent researchers the same execution-honest back-testing infrastructure available to institutional desks.
Leads factor model development and back-test validation. Specialises in KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ market microstructure, KRX corporate action data quality, and walk-forward validation methodology.
Responsible for the KRX data ingestion pipeline, tick data processing, and platform infrastructure. Ensures constituent list changes, corporate actions, and 배당 (dividend) events are applied accurately across the full 20-year KOSPI data window.
How we work
Methodological honesty
We document our limitations as clearly as our capabilities. A back-test that flatters is not useful.
KRX specificity
Generic back-testers import US equity conventions. We build for KOSPI mechanics — lot sizes, settlement T+2, dividend calendar, KOSDAQ liquidity.
Retail-first design
Institutional-grade KOSPI analysis, accessible without a Python or R environment. You should not need a quant programming background to run honest Korean equity research. Finology is a research tool — decisions about what to buy or sell remain entirely yours.