Hedge funds and market makers need data strategists as war heats up
How can you achieve a trading advantage in the fog of war? How about satellite imagery of damage to oil refineries, data on tanker movements, or movements of troops? Business Insider reported last week that hedge funds are turning to this kind of data amidst war in the Middle East. And there were already signs that data strategists and sourcing experts are on the move.
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In February 2025, Drew Lee, the VP of financial data at DE Shaw disappeared on gardening leave after 20 years with the fund. Last week, Lee announced that he's joined proprietary trading firm Tower Research as head of data strategy and and sourcing.
Lee is not the only senior person moving in the space. Evan Reich, the former head of data strategy and sourcing at Verition recently moved to intelligence firm BWG Global. Tony Berkman, a Two Sigma managing director who specialises in large empirical data sets, has been on gardening leave for the past year and is due to resurface.
Most funds already have large data sourcing teams and those that don't have been building them. Balyasny Asset Management for example spent 2025 adding to its data team under Jeremy Ridder Brunelli, the head of alt data and geospatial research who joined from UBS in 2022.
For those who want to get in at the bottom, Verition is currently hiring data sourcing associates in New York. The roles reportedly involve sourcing the data, negotiating its price, onboarding, ensuring it's legitimate (governance) and analysing how portfolio managers use it.
Alt data specialists work on data that delivers investible narratives in real time. Citadel has one of the largest teams within its data strategies group. Since November, this has been run by Jian Xu, a Citadel data scientise who launched the firm's "Alternative Data Observatory." Xu says this is now used by over 30% of Citadel's investment professionals.
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