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More than half (57%) of alternative data buyers and sellers expect spend to increase next year as the market continues to expand.
Neudata’s annual survey signalled continued growth for a segment of the market which become core to an increasingly data-driven hedge fund industry.
In addition, more than a third (34%) of market data buyers and sellers expect budgets to increase in 2026 as practitioners look to widen their use of different datasets from traditional market, as well as more alternative, sources.
Firms are subscribing to an average of 20 alternative datasets and 30 market datasets, according to the survey of more than 170 data buyers/sellers. Macro funds are the largest subscribers followed by quants, multi-strats and discretionary funds, with the latter showing how even traditional money managers are making use of data techniques to enhance returns.
Price negotiations continue to be the main pain point for data buyers, though complaints about trial times not being long enough (56% in 2024 versus 40% in 2025) and compliance concerns (down from 40% to 13%) fell.
Investment managers are most interested in information technology datasets, consumer discretionary datasets and financials datasets.
Twice as many respondents said their firms are using AI-processed data to optimise investment/trade strategies (14% in 2024 versus 31% in 2025), in line with a recent AIMA survey showing increased use for front office purposes.
Click here for the findings. AFI will be moderating a panel at Neudata’s Traditional and Market Data Summit 2025 in London on Thursday 18 September