M Science and quantPORT Sponsor BattleFin Alternative Data Competition

Dec 06, 2018 09:50 am
NEW YORK -- 

M Science, the pioneer in data-driven research and analytics, and quantPORT, a division of Jefferies Investment Advisers, LLC., are co-sponsoring the next BattleFin Alternative Data Combine, a coding competition for data scientists to create predictive models to forecast companies’ key performance indicators utilizing alternative data sets.

Winners of the $25,000 in combined prize money will be announced at BattleFin’s Discovery Day in Miami on January 29, 2019.

“The BattleFin Combine challenges the finest talent to explore real world applications of alternative data to generate alpha for the investment community,” said Michael V. Marrale, CEO of M Science. Data Science is critical to helping our clients generate alpha. As we continue to invest in technology and build our team, we are looking for the highest caliber data science talent around the world.”

The Combine will consist of several stages, narrowing down entrants to a field of 25 for the competition’s main event. Once the data scientists have been selected, they will be given a historical alternative data set and a predetermined amount of time to propose methodologies and build working models to answer several questions. The models will be tested and tracked to detect their predictive capability, prior to the main event.

“We at quantPORT face the very real challenge presented by the BattleFin Combine on a daily basis, that of translating alternative data into alpha. As such we fully appreciate the talent and effort it takes to succeed at such a task,” said Simon Langdon Managing Director of quantPORT. “The BattleFin Combine is designed to both challenge and reward the best and brightest in the global data science field. Those who successfully meet this challenge are sure to gain our attention and admiration. We look forward to welcoming all participants and congratulating the winners.”

 
Launch & Tryouts

   -- 12/06/2018

    Competition announced

   -- 12/18/2018

Webinar to explain details

   -- 1/7/2019

Registration closes
 
 
Stage One: Code Challenge

   -- 1/15/2019

    Stage 1 – Qualification Round Challenges sent to applicants

   -- 1/17/2019

Challenges submission deadline

   -- 1/29/2019

Final selections for competitors will be announced January 29th at
BattleFin Miami at the Fontainebleau Hotel.

 
 
Stage 2: Live Testing: The Main Event

   -- 2/8/2019

    Ensemble environments opened with data pre-loaded

   -- 2/24/2019

Environments close

   -- 3/1 – 3/10/2019

Phone or in-person reviews and discussion of models

   -- 3/15/2019

Winners announced & prize money distributed
 

To register, or find out more information, please visit www.alternativedatacombine.com, or email the competition organizers at [email protected]. 

“We are proud to be working with M Science and quantPORT as they turn alternative data into predictive analytics. This data science competition allows data scientists to get access to an incredible array of alternative data,” said Tim Harrington, CEO of BattleFin. “We encourage the data science community to put their skills to work to win money, see where they rank and solve interesting problems using alternative data.”

About M Science

M Science is a data-driven research and analytics firm, uncovering new insights for leading financial institutions and corporations. M Science is revolutionizing research, discovering new data sets and pioneering methodologies to provide actionable intelligence. Our research teams have decades of experience working with massive amounts of unstructured data in near real-time to discern critical insights that help clients make more informed decisions. We combine the best of finance, data and technology to create a truly unique value proposition for both financial services firms and major corporations in a variety of industries.

M Science is a portfolio company of Leucadia Investments, a division of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF). For more information, please visit www.mscience.com.

About quantPORT

QuαntPORT is a process driven investment management group consisting of a team of researchers, traders and technologists who harness and apply the power of technology, data and automation to identify, model and trade global financial markets. QuαntPORT is a division of Jefferies Investment Advisers, LLC (“JIA”), a registered investment adviser. JIA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jefferies Group LLC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF).

About BattleFin

BattleFin is an ecosystem focused on bringing alternative data to the world. We are made up of data hunters, data wranglers and alpha seekers. Our business has evolved from seeding systematic investment strategies and running data science competitions to include alternative data events and technology products. We are passionate about finding alpha by using alternative data. We are building the Discovery Day One-on-One meeting events globally to be the biggest events and most efficient way for data buyers to find the best data. Our buyside technology products like Ensemble© seek to bridge the gap between fundamental analysts and portfolio managers and data scientists. Our alternative data company products like the Alternative Data Accelerator help companies with unique data sets get traction in the financial services sector. Our Solutions business lets asset management firms quantify intuition and partner with us to generate alpha.

Media
Dana Taormina
JConnelly for M Science
973-850-7305
[email protected]

Tim Harrington, CEO
BattleFin Group, Inc.
212-201-5373
[email protected]