Top hedge fund analysts face 10% pay hit as industry struggles

Financial Times (subscription)

Senior investment professionals at hedge funds are projected to take a hit this year as the industry struggles through one of its worst periods since the financial crisis. Average total compensation for senior analysts will fall around 10% from $651,500 in 2017 to $589,000 this year, according to advisory firm CompIQ. Read More

Parking lots don’t tell the full story: the trouble with alt data

Bloomberg (subscription)

Satellite imagery of parking lots can help track sales before they’re reported, but alternative data can’t tell you everything. Industry veterans tell Bloomberg what has worked for them, what hasn’t, and what they look for (or avoid) in data sets. Read More

Insurers: The first and next alt-data innovators?

Carrier Management (subscription)

Quandl co-founder and Chief Data Officer authored this byline for Carrier Management magazine to help insurers understand the value of their own data to Wall Street. Read More

Next-gen ESG: Going beyond the basics

Capital Finance International

Investors have long searched for actionable sources of non-financial information, data that may not be on the balance sheet but still offers material and relevant insights. Lately the emphasis has turned to ESG data. Read More

Separation brings value for fintech spinoffs

Waters Technology (subscription)

Wall Street firms have discovered the value of alternative data for investing. Now they’re seeking to profit from the datasets and technologies that they have raised in house, and are set to take advantage of commercial opportunities for these tools. Read More

How to empirically measure alt-data’s true value

Lucena Research

Lucena Research walks us through using a backtest to evaluate turnover and transaction costs. Read More

The convergence of investment research and alternative data

Integrity Research

Asset managers have reduced their spending on sell-side and independent research in the past few years, yet many firms have sharply increased their spending on alternative data sets as they look for innovative sources of investment insight. Read More

How to set up an AI R&D lab

Harvard Business Review

There’s a common misconception that rebranding as an AI company is as simple as having data, infrastructure, and off-the-shelf data and analytics. The reality is that AI is complex, high-risk, expensive, and often requires significant business transformation. Read More

New marijuana data clears haze for investors

Barron’s

Alternative investment data is a hot trend, and it’s hooking up with another one: marijuana. Headset, an analytics firm that works with marijuana retailers to help them track sales and inventory, will offer data on pot trends to the investment world. Read More