The rise of ‘alt-data’ — fundies’ secret weapon in the quest for alpha
Antipodes Partners and others are increasingly relying on non-traditional sources of information to get an investing edge — and a crop of providers are eager to find it for them.
At a time when markets have never been so saturated with passive fund flows and rarely so concentrated, what is the humble hedge fund to do to outperform?
Increasingly, active investors are looking in the obscure corners others miss, sifting through a bucket of so-called “alternative data”.
The information edge they seek might have them analysing patterns in web traffic, app usage, or card spending to try and surmise what a trend says about a particular stock or industry before it shows up on a balance sheet.
Historically the realm of hedge funds, it is being adopted by a growing number of fund managers like $10 billion Sydney long-short manager Antipodes Partners.
