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.

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