Data alternatives, and alternative data, to use during US government shutdowns

Quandl

Another US government shutdown may start tomorrow (Feb 15), so analysts, economists, and other data-dependent specialists may be again in need of reliable alternatives to critical government data. Quandl has a selection of proxies for official datasets that may be impacted. Read More

Hedge funds fear a crackdown on alt data

Business Insider (subscription)

Hedge funds are increasingly turning to alternative data to identify trends before their competitors, but some managers are wading into potentially risky territory as they seek out cutting-edge data. Lawyers say a few steps can protect managers, including questioning a data provider’s sources. Read More

You have to know whose data you’re using

Bloomberg (subscription)

Regarding the above article, Bloomberg’s Matt Levine argues that getting information and incorporating it into prices is the point of capital markets, and that criminalizing differentiated research would be a mistake. “What is bad is having information that you got from someone without their permission.” Read More

Quants struggle to extract alpha from ‘noisy’ data

Risk.net (subscription)

Quants are still struggling to extract alpha from big and alternative datasets, despite heavy investment in data science.  The problem, according to Man Group‘s Michelle McCloskey, is noisy data. Read More

Goldman and Citi Make $20m venture bet on alt data

Fortune

Getting data earlier than most can be the edge needed for a winning investment, that’s what Goldman Sachs and Citi Ventures are betting on with Second Measure (a lightning round provider at our first conference back in 2017!). Read More

Hedge funds to spend $2 billion on web-scraping software

Business Insider (subscription)

One out every 20 web page visits last year was done by a hedge fund or sell-side research institution scraping websites for information, according to a new report by Opimas. We find this hard to believe too. Read More

Franklin Templeton broadens push into data science

Institutional Investor

The San Mateo fund manager has added to its data strategy by partnering with Elsen, a provider of software for portfolio managers. The move comes while traditional firms race to catch up as the line between fundamental and quant research continues to blur. Read More

Eternal market patience offers eternal rewards

Bloomberg (subscription)

Quants are mining ever-greater mounds of data in search of patterns, and the latest entry to the field is remarkable. A group of quants at Dutch investment house Robeco have produced research into the global performance of stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities going back to 1800. Read More

Japan sets sights on tighter anti-trust regulations for Big Tech

Reuters

Japan’s government plans to set up a new watchdog to scrutinize tech companies like Facebook and Google amid growing concerns about monopoly practices and the handling of personal data. Read More