In the perennial quest for alpha, investment managers have turned increasingly to big and alternative data for market insights. The most prominent consumers of this data on Wall Street are managers of ‘‘quant’’ funds, which devour massive amounts of data and translate that data into investment decisions via complex algorithms. Over the past decade, assets managed by quant funds have doubled, and hit $500 billion in 2017. ‘‘Rise of Robots: Inside the World’s Fastest Growing Hedge Funds.’’ Bloomberg (June 20, 2017). As of mid-2017, quant funds accounted for about 17% of total hedge fund assets. Id.

Meanwhile, an increasing amount of traditional investment managers are incorporating big data and quantitative strategies. This adoption ranges from a major use of big data at the firm-wide level, to having a dedicated team using big data, to having only a few portfolio managers or analysts using big data. According to Ernst and Young’s 2017 Global Hedge Fund and Investor Survey, 78% of hedge funds reported in 2017 that they currently use or expect to use non-traditional data, which is up from the reported figure of roughly 50% in 2016.