What job listings tell us about the future of Ford

Quandl

As a large-cap with a high dividend, Ford Motor Co is one of the most widely traded securities in the world. Unsurprisingly, investors are hungry for more information than the guidance offered in official results. Increasingly, they are turning to alternative data. Read More

Alternative data providers cash in on US shutdown

Financial Times (subscription)

The longest government shutdown in US history was a bonanza for the alternative data industry, particularly for those with agricultural market data, as the month-long closure halted a stream of important reports. Read More

Satellites and shoe-leather: How investors get beyond China’s dubious data

Reuters

Institutional investors are looking for alternative data in China as proxies for economic growth, corporate and sector performance – building models with inputs such as auto sales, air traffic and even commentary from beauty firms. In a related new paper reviewed by The Economist, researchers used alt data to show that official industrial output and investment numbers have been consistently embellished. Read More

BlackRock exec says Wall St. struggling to crack the data conundrum

Business Insider (subscription)

Many firms eager to integrate traditional and alternative data in their investment processes are struggling with data intake and processing. A senior BlackRock exec says the process is full of “headache and heartache.” Read More

Bloomberg’s take on the state of factor investing

Bloomberg (subscription)

Bloomberg Media gathers evidence to suggest that factor investing is “exhibiting signs of sickness” but don’t rule it – or other quant models – out just yet. Read More

LinkedIn seeks to overturn ruling on web-scraped data

Business Insider (subscription)

LinkedIn is seeking to overturn a California court decision that allows the scraping of data from the site’s public web pages. The case, which is currently in the appeals process, could impact an increasingly important part of hedge funds’ investment processes. Read More

Goldman enters thematic ETF fray with five new funds

Yahoo Finance

The new ETFs span themes, such as big data, fintech, and evolving consumer trends. To construct each index, the developer used rules-based methodologies to analyze both traditional and alternative data in order to calculate a company’s ‘thematic beta’ and quantify its exposure to specific transformational changes. Read More

What’s driving the demand for data scientists?

Knowledge@Wharton

Data analytics is becoming mission-critical for a wide variety of businesses. One of the mounting challenges they face is recruiting data scientists. “There are very few data scientists out there passing out their resumes,” says LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue, “[they] are almost all already employed, because they’re so much in demand.” Read More