As I come up for air at the end of an inspiring time in New York, I wanted to thank the participants who took part in our first ever Data Week. Now being referred to as ‘inaugural’ so watch this space for our next one.
We received positive feedback from each of the events held during the week in either the host party’s offices, or a venue of their choice. The events were designed to be concentrated in nature with a smaller niche group of attendees – a format which worked well.
Please see below a brief overview of each of the events.
Dore Partnership & Jain Global
Building, Growing & Retaining Data Teams On The Buyside.
We kicked off data week with an interesting conversation on growing and retaining data teams on the buyside. It was hosted by Richard Pook from Dore Partnerships and Rich Brown from Jain Global in Rockefeller Plaza. There was positive feedback provided to Eagle Alpha on both this get together, as well as this format.
Many thanks to Dore Partnerships for hosting.
CFA Society New York
Data And Infrastructure Decision Making With An Imperfect Dataset.
I found the panel and subsequent talk thought-provoking.
Panellists / Host:
Themes and topics discussed:
- Partnerships: Trend in universities partnering with companies showing that the space is not being as proprietary as it was.
- AI is slow: Because of AI there are a lot more tools (and startups) out there. Barriers to entry are much lower. The bad news is that models at strategy / front office level can be lacklustre. Remember that AI is only as smart as the person who controls it.
- Employment: It is an employer’s market at the moment; much harder for computer science grads to get jobs than it was. Big tech are not hiring in the same way that they previously were, so there are now more candidates than graduate positions.
- Alternative Data: A theme discussed was whether data vendors knew how to extract alpha from their own data. And if the data is really valuable why are there not more data vendors setting up funds. While it’s an interesting observation, it’s often not as practical as the panel portrayed.
Personally, I found it great to see discussions within membership bodies happening in a forum like this. I hadn’t realised how much of an employer’s market it was – some of the examples provided for that change in market dynamics were noteworthy – cited examples were provided detailing a sizeable increase in application numbers for the same quantum of openings.
Archedata Inc
Market Data vs Alternative Data Convergence: Best Practices Workshop for Sourcing and Managing Vendors.
This get together had a nice mix of buyside and vendor representatives. It was chaired by Rich Brown and Hongfei Huang from Archedata. Conversations flowed easily, and pain points from both vendor and buyer perspectives were discussed. I left feeling that attendees better understood more of the rationale for either party’s requests of the others, as well as how Archedata can help solve those pain points.
In the centre of Data Week was Eagle Alpha’s Unbound Conference on Wednesday, which was a resounding success. We received positive feedback from buyers and vendors alike. The space worked well, and Convene staff were great. You’ll see a separate blog post on this later in the week.
A sign of the times was evident: Somebody (cough – me) forgot the bell for the 1-on-1 meetings so it was a nice touch to use an AI voice to announce the changeover and YouTube for the bell chimes!
The SQA (Society of Quantitative Analysts) Alphathon was held at lunchtime at the Eagle Alpha conference, and this was also a first. But I think inaugural is appropriate to use for this as well!
Alphathon 2024 Winner Presentations
The SQA Alphathon started with presentations by the winning entries, across the 4 Alphathon 2024 questions:
- Q1: A Real-Time Streaming Application, by Point72/Cubist
- Q2: Using Large Language Models (LLMs) in Investment, by AllianceBernstein (AB)
- Q3: Fund Flows, Crowding and Subsequent Returns, by Principal
- Q4: A Long-Short Portfolio Strategy that Accurately Reflects Stock Selection Skill, by Optimal Portfolio Strategies
Afterwards, the Panel discussed The State of the Quant Industry.
Speakers included:
Moderator:
Thursday kicked off with ADI & Code Willing on GenAI’s Impact on Data Productization.
Again, the format of an open room worked well.
Jason Taylor from Automated Data Inc. chaired the all-star panel which included:
Themes included:
- Employment theme rose again, with panellists recommending that recent (or soon-to-be) grads should be spending a significant period of their time in researching, experimenting, and watching the various GenAI information on YouTube and Discord.
- Merits of Cursor as an AI code editor were discussed also, and how good a feedback loop it can provide.
- The expectation of seeing ‘AI-forward Funds’ materialising in the near future, and the fast forwarding of discretionary funds to the quantamental space.
Our thanks to Code Willing for hosting this great discussion.
Fortia Group (Emmett Kilduff) & Outrigger (Evan Schnidman)
Roll Ups, M&A, Consolidation In The Data World
Key takeaways were:
- Growth in datasets has outpaced growth in data budgets.
- The main blocker to data vendors selling their businesses is that most are sub-scale (<$5m ARR).
- A solution is for vendors to form a consortium that sells to strategics or private equity firms. The Fortia Group can advise on this.
The Thursday lunchtime session was held in EY’s office, and discussed the below theme:
How Are Corporates Approaching Data Assetization?
Key takeaways were:
- Several large corporates have been monetizing data for years – examples were provided on the day and discussed.
- Innovative PE firms are encouraging their portfolio companies to monetize their data.
- How data is valued depends on various elements. For example, which vertical(s) it is selling to.
Finally, the week closed off with a session held by System 2 to discuss the below theme:
US Consumer – Deep Dive Into Behavioral Trends With Transaction Data.
Discussion points included behavioral shifts, impact of economic factors, and eCommerce indicators.
As Eagle Alpha’s Data Week concluded, we extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended the events.
Your participation made this week a resounding success, and increased the valuable discussions and connections within the data community.
A special thank you goes to all the hosts and speakers who contributed their expertise and insights. Your dedication and passion for data innovation were evident in each session, enriching the experience for all attendees.
Together, we are shaping the future of data and its applications across various industries. We look forward to seeing you at future events!
