The current wave of growth in alternative data might be starting to feel like a tsunami. With the number and variety of available datasets growing much faster than investors’ bandwidth to digest them, investment managers need to become more proficient in maximizing the “edge” extracted from data.

Chad Gray, CFA is an experienced quant researcher and alternative data vendor focused on helping buy-side clients to maximize value from new data and quantitative methods, with emphasis on practical solutions that fit within an existing investment process.

Scope of Coverage¶

Projects are customized to clients’ goals and resources, but can include:

Data Sourcing¶

• Data Scouting – Locate datasets best suited for your specific use case without commercial bias
• Data Trial Management – Coordinate trial evaluations of one or multiple commercial datasets. Profile and fully backtest vendor data. Negotiate with vendor if appropriate
• Custom Web Scraping – Construct/manage web scraping scripts for open web data relevant to your specific investment questions. Provide data-as-a-service and/or scripts

Bespoke Investment Analysis¶

• Insight Extraction – Work large, messy datasets (e.g., credit card data, geolocation, web traffic) you’ve acquired to answer questions relevant to an investment decision
• Modeling – Develop professional-level models to systematically backtest or implement investment strategies using fundamental and/or alternative datasets
• KPI Dashboards – Construct customized analytics dashboards which enable PMs and analysts to monitor and explore the data, no code required

Data Program Development¶

• Data Inventory – Itemize, catalog, and audit data assets currently accessible to your organization. Identify opportunities to expand usage or terminate unused data
• Infrastructure – Design/implement infrastructure for storing, accessing, analyzing, and sharing data across the organization
• Data Strategy Development – Facilitate a process of defining your organization’s short- and long-term goals for expanded use of data in the investment process - and to develop a realistic roadmap
• Team Training – Deliver customized trainings that build skills within existing investment teams

About Alpha Scientist Consulting¶

Chad Gray, CFA has spent the past 15 years working at the intersection of alternative data and investing. He entered the field in 2007 developing and selling alternative data to hedge funds, long before the field had a name. More recently, Chad has worked as portfolio manager, quant researcher, and consultant to buy-side investors seeking to gain more value from data.

Chad earned a MS in Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from MIT-Sloan, and a BS in Engineering from Northwestern. He occasionally blogs at www.alphascientist.com and develops training courses for the Financial Data Professionals Institute.

If you’re trying to more effectively integrate data into your investing process, please reach out by email or schedule a time to find out how I can help.