Data Trends for Investment Professionals
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We are in the fortunate position here at Quandl to bear firsthand witness to the evolution of alternative data; interactions with clients, data providers, and immersion in the space combine to give us a unique perspective. From our standpoint, alternative data is growing unabated, although innovation is perhaps slower than some would like. Here...
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We're witnessing a data revolution. You all know by now that we've produced more data in the last 2 years than we have throughout all of humanity. And the pace is only increasing. It begs the question: how do you extract actionable trading signals from this brave new world of noise? It starts with understanding the landscape. Here is Quandl's take on the taxonomy of alternative data for finance.
In 2004 I enjoyed my 15 minutes of fame for an article I wrote called The Tao of Alpha, in which I explained the concept of alpha as a zero-sum game. Sources of alpha in 2004 were much different than those available in the mid-1990s when I started my career and they are also different from today's. Alpha is highly transient and has been coming and going for as long as capital markets have existed. The term “alpha” entered the vocabulary of Wall Street sometime in the 1980s, gaining widespread use in the 1990s with the proliferation of hedge funds.It...
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: high resolution images taken from space now allow us to count cars in retailers’ parking lots, and therefore estimate quarterly earnings ahead of the street. Or this: we can use trigonometry to measure the shadows cast by floating oil tank lids and then gauge the world’s oil supply. Or this: we can monitor the vehicles coming and going from industrial facilities in China, and create a nascent China manufacturing index. Dozens of other possibilities exist, bound only by our ability to imagine what we can infer about markets based on high quality...
As quants, we’re all aware that every model has a shelf life. Sooner or later, the ideas and techniques behind every “proprietary” analytical technique diffuse into the broader world, at which point that technique is no longer the source of a competitive edge or alpha. What’s less well appreciated is that a similar pattern applies to the world of data. Rare, unique and proprietary data eventually diffuses and becomes commonplace, easily available, edgeless data. The best analysts constantly reinvent their models and source new data products to avoid their inevitable obsolescence. Today, they're venturing into the world of alternative data as a...
In 2004 I was running a hedge fund consultancy, where I advised many of the world's leading hedge funds. With this perspective, I wrote an article called The Tao of Alpha. The article offers a unique viewpoint on how alpha was then used and understood. We have transcribed the original article below. The Global Alpha Shortage Even the least sophisticated of investors understand that alpha is something to be pursued. Alpha is good. And more alpha is better. Not surprisingly then, most marketing documents are laced with the word. It slips easily off the tongue of marketers and managers. It appears in conference titles, as in “Portable...