Mind the (digital talent) gap: Supercharging research with general-purpose programming languages

Every once in a while there comes a new idea, or a repackaged old one, in sync with a few coincidences in the environment. A change in regulation, adoption of new technology and a nudge, and things change. The resulting ‘snowball effect’ is the adoption of general-purpose programming languages (GPPLs) in finance. This paper talks about this current trend, the factors driving it, and the reactions of the firms affected.

Key Takeaways:

• Why the trend – factors pushing adoption of GPPLs and why the current methods of data analysis have reached their limits
• The environment – changes in business models due to regulation, explosive growth of data, the changing nature of the data to be analyzed (sentiment and images), and asset managers demanding more ‘bespoke’ research
• The power of GPPLs – analyzing data and automating tasks enable an analyst to leverage ‘economies of scale’ in analyzing alternative data
• What firms are doing – alleviating employees’ fears of becoming digitally illiterate, through mandatory coding sessions, using GPPLs to offer more tailored insights