Alternative Data News. 27, December 2019
Finding sources and uses for alternative data can be difficult. At CloudQuant we regularly read and search the internet for new sources of data that can be used in our mission to find alpha signals and build quantitative trading strategies. We recognize that we are technology and data junkies so we wrote our own crawler that specifically seeks out web pages, posts, and news articles that give us a snapshot of what is going on in the world of Alt Data. The following is a collection of articles that we think you will find interesting from the past week.
2020 Brings Manufacturing Data, Auto Sales
The end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 will be quiet on both the earnings and economic fronts. While Chinese truck and auto manufacturer Nio (NIO) is scheduled to release its quarterly report on Monday, Dec. 30, the Chicago purchasing managers index (PMI), consumer confidence, and construction spending will also be in focus throughout the holiday-shortened week.
Below is a brief list of some key market events scheduled for the upcoming week. All …
2019-12-26 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 3.9301, Raw Interest Score: 1.2373,
Positive Sentiment: 0.0000, Negative Sentiment 0.1456
CloudQuant Thoughts: Alternative Data may already be predicting Manufacturing Data and Auto Sales.
S&P and Nasdaq Climb to New Highs Again
Nasdaq looking for a 10th consecutive record close, traders are monitoring more trade buzz and this morning’s jobless claims update that matched expectations. Bulls are also cheering upbeat e-commerce sales data for the holiday season, though trading volumes remain somewhat thin during the holiday-shortened week.
Continue reading for more on today’s market, including:
Amazon sales update sends stock to fresh high.
sends stock to fresh high. Drug trial fail sinks pharma stock.
sinks pharma stock. Plus, First Solar options hot; ACN’s rally fades; and MBOT pares recent gains.
One name seeing unusual …
2019-12-26 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 3.5437, Raw Interest Score: 1.4396,
Positive Sentiment: 0.1661, Negative Sentiment 0.1661
CloudQuant Thoughts: Is sales data fundamental data or is it alternative data? There is debate among our client base. What do you think?
The Role of Data Analytics in the Finance Industry
The role of data analytics in the finance industry is profound and growing with each passing year. With data science, machine learning, and modeling, data analytics professionals can use these tools for organizations to minimize risk and create more efficient and profitable decisions based on fact rather than fiction.
According to highlights of a study from Dresner Advisory Services in Forbes, data analytics adoption in e…
2019-12-23 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 3.4631, Raw Interest Score: 2.0052,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2061, Negative Sentiment 0.2249
CloudQuant Thoughts: More and more asset managers are adding heads of data science. Not surprised in any way because we firmly believe that the fund managers will find alpha, investment opportunities, in data including Fundamental Data, Market Data, and Alternative Data. With firms hiring heads of data science that usually means that they will be hiring junior and lead data science staff.
Top 13 Talks From Analytics India Magazine Conferences In 2019
Analytics India Magazine is single-handedly responsible for four of the major artificial intelligence and data analytics conferences in India. These conferences open up a wide range of opportunities to practitioners, aspirants and those who are looking for collaborations.
The year 2019 began with MLDS in January, followed by The Rising in March for women in AI and with MachineCon in Mumbai and Singapore in May. The year ended with AIM’s flagship event CYPHER in September and this year was no different either. Into…
2019-12-23 04:55:48+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 3.4453, Raw Interest Score: 1.4760,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2338, Negative Sentiment 0.2192
Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence: Driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, as an expression, was originally introduced by Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum’s Executive Chairman. He used it in a 2015 article published in Foreign Affairs. Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution became the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting theme a few years ago.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution describes the fundamental changes influencing in the way we work, relate, and live with one another. I…
2019-12-26 08:35:56+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 3.1561, Raw Interest Score: 1.5341,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2899, Negative Sentiment 0.1343
6 Questions to Ask When Creating ESG Portfolios
Consumers increasingly want to align personal values with their investment portfolios. In response to the growing demand for values-aligned investments, the number of funds that incorporate environmental social and governance (ESG) factors has more than doubled since 2010, according to the U.S. Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. Unfortunately, many advisors are discovering how challenging it can be to create the alignment their clients seek.
Complexity in ESG investing is found in multiple dimensions. The growth in the number of offerings creates one dimension of complexity, with another dimension crea…
2019-12-19 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 3.0655, Raw Interest Score: 1.5511,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2320, Negative Sentiment 0.1588
CloudQuant Thoughts: ESG Data is high on our radar right now. We have been seeing a lot of interest in the G&S Quotient data in our Dataset Catalog and shown in the following graph from last week.

$FOX ESG Simulated Trading, 5 Day Hold
Financial Identity could add $250 Bn to Asia and Latam
These days, I hear headlines on Financial Inclusion so often that, it makes me wonder if Financial Inclusion is the new Fintech. The past three years in India, with the rise of payments, Aadhaar and last mile access to financial services is a great example.
Image Source
We have also had Nubank from Latin America that won Softbank’s investment, and the Grab and GoJek story in South East Asia. Some of them are taking the digital banking route to …
2019-12-20 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.9785, Raw Interest Score: 1.3184,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2930, Negative Sentiment 0.0732
One of America’s top-ranked fund managers of 2019 dominated the market with an ESG fund. He told us why it makes for better companies, and isn’t just a way to feel good about your portfolio.
Joe Hudepohl of Atlanta Capital told Business Insider how environment, social, and governance criteria were critical to the Calvert Equity Fund, one of the best-performing funds of 2019.
Hudepohl rejects the idea that ESG is a feel-good way to avoid unpopular companies. He says it’s a way to find companies with traits that will help them outperform and avoid those facing big threats.
Atlanta Capital’s managers focus on companies with quality ea…
2019-12-27 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.8620, Raw Interest Score: 1.2356,
Positive Sentiment: 0.5336, Negative Sentiment 0.1966
A Beginner’s Guide To Socially Responsible Investing
Getty
A new generation of investors is changing the way we think about financial investments. Not only do they want to work hard and invest wisely, but they also want their investments to matter. According to a 2017 survey, more than half of millennials said they always or often invest in sustainable funds.
Spurred by this interest from investors, more wealth managers are factoring ESG criteria into their investment decisions than ever before. …
2019-12-26 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.8342, Raw Interest Score: 1.4668,
Positive Sentiment: 0.4234, Negative Sentiment 0.3327
Data Science Trends for 2020
Data Science Trends for 2020
Data Science is everywhere now. What can we look forward in 2020?
Right now, people are already celebrating the end of the decade (fun fact: the 2020s decade actually begins on Jan. 1, 2021). As last year, I decided to thinking over what has happened and what can we expect, in my opinion, regarding Data Science for 2020.
I’ve never expected my last year’s reflection post to hav…
2019-12-27 14:25:44.346000+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.7740, Raw Interest Score: 1.4843,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2120, Negative Sentiment 0.3075
Alibaba, Salesforce, Constellation Software Make RBC’s List of Top 2020 Picks
RBC Capital is bullish on a Chinese Internet giant and two fast-growing software names heading into the new year, as well as one well-known ride-hailing giant that’s trading far below its IPO price.
Alibaba (BABA) , Salesforce.com (CRM) and Uber (UBER) made it onto RBC’s list of top 30 global stock ideas for 2020, as did Canadian software conglomerate Constellation Software (CNSWF) , which is listed in Toronto.
For those curious, non-tech names…
2019-12-24 15:48:48-05:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.7423, Raw Interest Score: 1.3373,
Positive Sentiment: 0.1365, Negative Sentiment 0.1092
Ace Python Interviews — a new, free course to help you get a better job — Reuven Lerner
Ace Python Interviews — a new, free course to help you get a better job
It’s hard to exaggerate just how hot Python is right now. Lots of companies — from small startups to the Fortune 100 — have realized that Python allows them to do more in less time, and with less code. This means, of course, that companies are scrambling to hire Python developers. There’s tons of demand, and not nearly enough supply.
In other words: Now is a great time to b…
2019-12-23 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.7153, Raw Interest Score: 1.7161,
Positive Sentiment: 0.3575, Negative Sentiment 0.3218
Is Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Expensive For A Reason? A Look At Its Intrinsic Value
How far off is Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we’ll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by estimating the company’s future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. This is done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!
We generally believe that a company’s value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is …
2019-12-23 00:56:37+11:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.7039, Raw Interest Score: 1.8664,
Positive Sentiment: 0.0627, Negative Sentiment 0.1725
Metadata Management Drives the Future of Data Management
Metadata Management makes a huge difference in finding critical data and helps enterprises not get lost within millions (or billions) of records. Metadata provides context about data, describing the information inside a data set, like a candy wrapper detailing the ingredients of the sweet stuff it encloses. This kind of data about data drives a search engine like Google to list results more precisely – or drives a person with a title and author, …
2019-12-19 08:35:26+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.4793, Raw Interest Score: 1.5096,
Positive Sentiment: 0.1317, Negative Sentiment 0.2128
Recommendation System with Reinforcement Learning
Recommendation System with Reinforcement Learning
Harvard Data Science Capstone Project, Fall 2019
Team members: Sophie Zhao, Yizhou Wang, Feng Qian
Recommendation system can be a vital competitive edge for service providers such as Spotify, who mainly grows business through user subscriptions. Accurate recommendations help improve user experience and strengthen customer loyalty.
Traditional recommendation methods include modeling user-item interaction with super…
2019-12-26 19:56:53.950000+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.4270, Raw Interest Score: 1.4055,
Positive Sentiment: 0.1884, Negative Sentiment 0.0785
Banking industry must think ‘out of the box’ to solve the data science skills gap
owever, is that we often ascribe them miraculous powers that are beyond their actual capabilities while ignoring the fact that far greater powers reside in a much humbler vessel – the human cranium.
Data analytics provides a great example of this disconnect. Every organisation knows that it needs to unleash the power of the information that it holds, while simultaneously being painfully aware that there is currently a worldwide shortage of data scientists. (A LinkedIn Workforce Report for the US earlier this year identified 151,000 data scientist jobs going unfilled in that region alone.) Instead of incurr…
2019-12-20 09:40:42 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.3931, Raw Interest Score: 1.4518,
Positive Sentiment: 0.3031, Negative Sentiment 0.2074
metadsl PyData talk
metadsl PyData talk
PyData NYC just ended and I thought it would be good to collect my thoughts on metadsl based on the many conversations I had there surrounding it. This is a rather long post, so if you are just looking for some code here is a Binder link for my talk
What is metadsl ?
class Number ( metadsl . Expression ): @metadsl . expression def __add__ ( self , other : Number ) -> Number : … @metadsl . expression @classmethod def from_…
2019-12-24 06:00:00-05:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.3921, Raw Interest Score: 1.2963,
Positive Sentiment: 0.1869, Negative Sentiment 0.0965
Wawa Data Breach Exposed Customers’ Financial Info for Nine Months
Malware potentially affected all of the convenience store operator’s more than 800 locations.
Privately held Wawa Inc. said Thursday that malware in its computer systems left customer credit card data exposed for nine months until the breach was discovered earlier this month.
In a letter to customers, Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens said the company “discovered malware on Wawa payment processing servers on Dec. 10, 2019, and contained it by Dec. 12, 2019. This malware affected customer payment card information used at potentially all Wawa locations beginning at different points in time after March 4,…
2019-12-19 19:47:55-05:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.3490, Raw Interest Score: 1.1186,
Positive Sentiment: 0.0000, Negative Sentiment 0.1119
4 Critical Areas Where Big Data Impacts Ecommerce
t customers from terabytes of data, it’s well on its way to becoming a major source of competitive advantage.
Business leaders understand that. According to this Business Wire report, the global big data analytics in the retail market is already estimated at an impressive $3.45 billion and it’s projected to reach $10.94 billion in less than five years. This means one thing: more and more companies are building the capacity to take advantage of big data.
By “taking advantage of big data,” I mean the following:
Utilize the analytics to determine business opportunities that are worth pursuing
Interpreting …
2019-12-21 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.2833, Raw Interest Score: 1.2371,
Positive Sentiment: 0.3866, Negative Sentiment 0.2964
Market Basket Analysis with Python and Pandas
endations). If you aren’t sure what market basket analysis is, I’ve provided a quick overview below.
What is Market Basket Analysis?
In the simplest of terms, market basket analysis looks at retail sales data and determines what products are purchased together. For example, if you sell widgets and want to be able to recommend similar products and/or products that are purchased together, you can perform this type of analysis to be able to understand what products should be recommended when a user views a widget.
You can think of this type of analysis as generating the following ‘rules’:
If widget A, …
2019-12-26 14:45:24+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.2717, Raw Interest Score: 1.0461,
Positive Sentiment: 0.0557, Negative Sentiment 0.0124
Building a Data Driven Organization
the fundamentals of data analysis and its application to business. Big Data is powerful and plentiful and has the potential to dramatically change how you do business. By focusing on the Four V’s of data analytics– Volume, Velocity, Variety and Veracity-you will be able to grow your business and create more Value for your organization.
In this workshop, you will learn how to understand, analyze and integrate Big Data to better understand your customers, product mix and supply chain. You will learn how to turn your data into a competitive advantage….
2020-02-03 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.2491, Raw Interest Score: 1.3841,
Positive Sentiment: 0.6920, Negative Sentiment 0.0000
What Makes Manipal Jigsaw’s Postgraduate Program In Data Science One Of The Best Full-Time Data Science Courses In India?
Data science is no longer just an upcoming technology in today’s modern workplace. Almost every aspect of an enterprise now depends on smart usage and analysis of data. As more companies bolster their analytics and data science capabilities, they are aggressively hiring professionals with sound technical knowledge. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that the number of job openings in the data science sector …
2019-12-20 07:02:50+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.1698, Raw Interest Score: 1.4689,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2235, Negative Sentiment 0.0798
Spotting the Winners: Cramer’s ‘Mad Money’ Recap (Thursday 12/19/19)
Jim Cramer explains what investors can learn from companies’ conference calls and what that means for related sectors.
Knowing what a read-through means is a great way to spot winners that others may miss, Jim Cramer told his Mad Money viewers Thursday, but only if the company you’re taking your cues from is credible.
Cramer said investors can learn a lot from Micron Technology’s (MU) – Get Report conference call this quarter, as the company la…
2019-12-19 21:25:13-05:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.1177, Raw Interest Score: 1.3367,
Positive Sentiment: 0.1991, Negative Sentiment 0.1138
Just How Much Do Design And Data Science Collaborate?
What if I told you that less than half of design teams frequently work with analytics or data science employees during an iterative design process?
It’s hard to be “dataful” without talking to people who have lots of data (to borrow a phrase from design author John Maeda).
Earlier this year, I worked with my colleague Brandon Purcell on a report about creating data-fueled products — a digital product that recognizes patterns and anomalies relevant to a user’s goals in large quantities of data a…
2019-12-18 19:03:30-05:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.1043, Raw Interest Score: 1.2877,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2827, Negative Sentiment 0.2827
Software Engineers Just Want to Keep Learning: Study
What motivates software engineers to pursue new opportunities?
According to data crunched by Triplebyte, “opportunity for professional growth” is the biggest motivator, ahead of salary, better work/life balance, and “impressive team members.” (The company, which tries to streamline the technical hiring process, asks every engineer on its platform about what would excite them most in their next position.)
For most software engineers, professiona…
2019-12-27 00:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.0979, Raw Interest Score: 1.7739,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2888, Negative Sentiment 0.0000
What will Fintech scene look like in 2020 according to the industry experts
2019 was an excellent year for fintechs in terms of exposure and raising awareness among the majority of the population about what fintechs are and what potential they hold for the regular citizens. In 2019 we saw a major spike in the number of fintech, in the funding of these fintechs and the collaborations between these startups and the larger, more traditional institutions.
The collaborations between the two and the increased adoption of tech…
2019-12-23 13:08:50 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.0701, Raw Interest Score: 0.8084,
Positive Sentiment: 0.3135, Negative Sentiment 0.2475
Is Data Science For You? This IBM Data Scientist Tells How To Figure It Out
In the ever-changing data science landscape, people need to assimilate whether they are fascinated by the machine learning processes or just going along with the hype this field has generated. Many a time, fresh graduates get into data science, but they struggle to stay abreast with the latest trends.
To discuss this, and more, Analytics India Magazine got in touch with Sharath Kumar RK, Data Scientist at IBM India, for our week…
2019-12-27 04:38:00+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.0551, Raw Interest Score: 1.4038,
Positive Sentiment: 0.3276, Negative Sentiment 0.3042
Banking predictions for 2020 – more competition, more collaboration and new sources of revenue
As 2019 draws to a close, financial services commentators and vendors have made their customary end-of-year predictions for the 12 months ahead, with increased competition through supercharged PSD2 the principal driving force.
Regulation reinforced
PSD2 came into full effect in September 2019, while UK’s Open Banking equivalent is set to celebrate its second birthday in January. The effect thus far however has been fairly minimal, with techno…
2019-12-23 09:00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 2.0387, Raw Interest Score: 1.1834,
Positive Sentiment: 0.2663, Negative Sentiment 0.1479
Data Science Chartbusters Prediction Hackathon: Predict Popularity Of Songs & Win Exciting Prizes
“Without music, life would be a mistake” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Music has been tightly embedded in our system since the beginning of time as we know it. It has its presence in every culture known to humankind from ancient tribes to modern civilizations. Today, music has grown to be an industry by itself, not just an industry, but something that contributes to the world’s economy in millions or possibly in billions of dollars. Music is deeply infl…
2019-12-23 12:00:00+00:00 Read the full story…
Weighted Interest Score: 1.8503, Raw Interest Score: 1.1679,
Positive Sentiment: 0.3962, Negative Sentiment 0.1460
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