Fundamental data can often be a lag or at best coincident indicator of an asset value, but when combined with alternative data such as investor positioning/sentiment we can build a much clearer outlook for future price direction.
Descartes Labs, a startup analyzing satellite imagery data, announced that it would make its corn yield forecast available for free and updated every week throughout the 2016 growing season.
On the 13th of October 2015, we published a research note on U.S. auto lenders highlighting customer service issues. Santander Consumer (SC) had the worst consumer complaint and review profile, followed by Ally Financial (ALLY). The two companies had:
Online reviews have become mainstream and consumers are increasingly relying on them when making decisions. This article presents the latest research on the following topics: distribution of negative and positive reviews, sentiment of online reviews and evaluation of the impact on sales.
The preliminary results look promising: the system chose a number of stocks six months ago and it yielded more than 30% since. The startup is now waiting for certain patents that involve AI and bots while also closing a private funding round.
Gene Ekster, CFA is Eagle Alpha’s advisory panel member who works with asset management firms and data providers in a consulting capacity to help integrate alternative data into the investment process.
Twitter data is used by financial industry professionals in a variety of ways. It has been extensively used for fundamental and consumer analysis since the SEC confirmed that companies could use Twitter to announce key information.
Matt Granade stated that alternative data is useful for generating new alpha. He said: "It is a real change from how investing used to work."
On the 15th of July, we produced a research note on the US toy market highlighting “… pressure on licensed brands [as] a headwind for Hasbro in the US.” We showed that Hasbro had lost share amongst the bestselling boys’ toys in the US.
Eagle Alpha has spent over 2 years perfecting indices based on online search activity. By creating baskets of online search terms related to certain topics, Eagle Alpha can build indices that improve existing models and indicators with clients also being able to create proprietary indices.
Jeff Glueck, Foursquare's CEO, published an analysis of the American theme park market using the company's foot traffic data: "We took a look at our data set, which covers both explicit “check-ins” and passive location trails from users who have opted-in to background location use.
