The CEO of Systematica Investments discusses how her company employs technology to achieve returns.

As the first financial services industry speaker at the Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference, keynote presenter Leda Braga, CEO of Systematica Investments, introduced attendees to the role of data science applied to investment. Braga’s company manages large pools of assets from pension funds to insurance company premiums, to sovereign wealth funds of various countries. As a hedge fund manager, the company focuses on two areas of investment management – signal generation and portfolio construction. Signal generation is the process of trying to predict what assets should be bought or sold. Portfolio construction is the process of organizing investments strategically to meet investment objectives and achieve returns.

Portfolio construction is essentially a constrained optimization problem, Braga notes, and as a result, it is an area where data science can help illuminate the best solutions. At Systematica Investments, the company uses data and algorithms to determine how to maximize financial returns given a number of variables with specific constraints within financial markets and environments. At the end of the day, she says, the business of investment management is the business of information management.

Braga believes a passion for data science coupled with an interest in making a difference matters in the field of strategic investing. Worldwide, professionally managed assets are valued at $80 trillion. “If you want to change the world,” she says, “bank your money in the right places. And if you think about investment management as this activity whereby the pools of capital of the world get directed, that is so powerful. And if that is going to become completely data driven over time, you can’t miss that opportunity. You’ve got to join in and have a say.”