Data Nerds Struggle to Gain Power at Hedge Funds

As hedge funds embrace the cool calculations of big data, they find themselves wrestling with something far more human -- a struggle for power. The firms have been loading up on data scientists and coders to deliver on the promise of quantitative investing and lift their ho-hum returns. But they are discovering that the marriage of old-school managers and data-driven quants can be rocky. Managers who have relied on gut calls resist ceding control to scientists and their trading signals. And quants, emboldened by the success of computer-driven funds like Renaissance Technologies, bristle at their second-class status and vie for a bigger voice in investing.