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Counting cars in parking lots turns out to be a good way to predict how well a big box retailer is doing--and trade their stock just before quarterly reports come out. Similarly for satellite photos of field crops and activity in other industries. Quartz has the story, https://qz.com/1652293/how-to-make-money-with-rs-metrics-and-orbital-insight-space-data/
Satellite speculators have reportedly used techniques like car-counting, tracking oil inventories or watching corn fields to make profitable forecasts of equity and commodity markets. Now, research from finance professors at UC Berkeley and the University of Kentucky provides the first independent evidence that these trading strategies work—and that they’re likely being used to the detriment of small-time investors.
The space datasets in question, created by firms RS Metrics and Orbital Insight, allow sophisticated investors to gain near-realtime understanding of same-store sales growth, an important metric for understanding the business of physical retailers like Walmart, Target or Costco. Investors can then make bets on or against companies just before they disclose quarterly financial results.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @03:08PM (11 children)
This seems no different from insider trading to me, which is a fake crime.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @03:33PM (1 child)
Just like murder.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @04:46PM
Just like smoking weed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @03:44PM (4 children)
I'm starting to think SN is a hangout for trust fund babies terrified of losing their free ride or worse, paying for their crimes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @05:04PM (3 children)
If he’s a trust fund baby, is it likely he’s even trading?
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday July 06 2019, @05:45PM (2 children)
Trust fund babies don't need to trade. When they do, some fund manager does it on their behalf.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @06:12PM
If I had a trust fund I'd probably just want it all in bonds and live off the yields. This is going to break soon though with nirp on the way.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday July 07 2019, @04:30AM
Then there's Trump, who may have increased his trust fund dealing in real-estate, a sure winner. His reality TV show has done much better then the other trust fund people.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @06:23PM (3 children)
What kind of idiocy is this? Trading on parking lot utilization is not trading on unpublished, internal information. It is visible to anyone, and there are services that anyone can pay for that will aggregate that data for you.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @06:48PM (2 children)
If I get my own satellite feed to watch a bunch of parking lots and use that to estimate sales, I don't have additional information unavailable to others?
Obviously I am better off than most other investors, my info is nearly equivalent to the inside info of sales data. Isn't this "unfair"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @09:34PM (1 child)
Yes, it's unfair, this and many other advantages of large investors are why I don't attempt to pick stocks -- index funds all the way down.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 07 2019, @12:53AM
My problem with most general index funds are that the balance gets upset if there is a bubble. Currently, a SP500 fund is going to be 26% invested in tech due to the high valuations in that industry. If you want to balance down the tech sector, you'll have to bring in several more index funds that concentrate on utilities, durable goods etc.