By Marie Cabural. Originally published at ValueWalk.
Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management hired Matthew Granade as the chief market intelligence officer. Mr. Granade was the former co-head of research at Bridgewater Associates.
Mr. Granade will supervise the data sourcing and analysis initiatives of Point72 Asset Management. He decided to accept the job after learning firm’s efforts in data analysis, which was extolled by Mr. Cohen and Douglas Haynes, president of Point72 Asset Management, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Steve explained that this was the way the firm needs to evolve. My personal feeling is that this is a very exciting time in this space. Investing now isn’t just about earnings estimates and 10ks. It’s about satellite imagery, sensors, and mobile devices. The more you can process those things, the more edge you’ll have,” said Mr. Granade.
Prior to his career at Bridgewater Associates, Mr, Granade served as an adviser to Orbital Insights, a company based in Palo Alto, California engaged in designing systems that analyze satellite images to obtain important information. Its first clients were Hedge Funds.
Point72 wants to distance its investment practices from SAC Capital
Mr. Cohen previously managed SAC Capital Advisors, which was embroiled in insider trading charges. The hedge fund pleaded guilty in 2013, agreed to pay a penalty of $1.8 billion and stop managing money for outside clients.
Mr. Cohen established Point72 as a family office. Industry observers suggest that Mr. Cohen is trying to distance Point72 from the image and investment practices of his previous hedge fund. He wants the firm to become a great with a “strong sense of community that always acts with integrity…”
Point72 Quantitative Analysis Division
Point72 started its efforts data sourcing and analysis as investment management firms become increasingly interested in how to find profit-driving information from streams of data. The firm started building its Quantitative Analysis Division in March.
Currently, Point72 has several data teams developing insights for portfolio managers. The firm’s Aperio group is composed of 30 people responsible for finding sources of data and giving analysis to trading groups.
Point72’s Canvas group is responsible for conducting surveys and making traditional Wall Street research. The firm also employs several economists.
Observers in the industry are uncertain about the degree of change in Mr. Cohen’s investment strategy given his focus on new analytical tools.
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