A top Millennium quant lays out the four types of alt data that produce alpha, and why it’s so hard to find these days

• Millennium’s deputy head of quant strategies said new alt datasets are lacking in long-term alpha generation.
• New datasets focus on themes, such as data on Reddit traders.
• There hasn’t been a can’t-miss dataset to come out in years, he said.

If you can think of a dataset, it’s most likely out there – and if you can’t find it, then you aren’t looking hard enough.

At least that’s what Matthew Rothman – the deputy of quant strategies for Izzy Englander’s $52 billion Millennium – said at Tuesday’s Neudata digital conference.

Rothman, who has helped build up Millennium’s new quant platform with former Cubist head Ross Garon over the last 12 months, said the tidal wave of data has made some people forget data’s purpose in the investing game: alpha.