Quant shops look for patterns in the data to try to predict how the stock market moves and codify this in the model. If everybody is looking for the same pattern then the pattern becomes worthless. The patterns are therefore a closely guarded trade secret.
Quant shops have to continually research to detect new patterns to get ahead of the competition for this reason.
Then they also have to account for what other quant shop models are doing. Something something brightest minds of our generation playing algorithm battles. It's sad to me that such pursuits generate massive amounts of money while not benefitting anyone in the slightest.
Quant shops have to continually research to detect new patterns to get ahead of the competition for this reason.