Internet Data Mining for Investment Analysis

CaroKann writes "Reuters is reporting on a Wall Street investment research company, Majestic Research, that is using web crawling techniques to track business performance. Instead of attempting to estimate business conditions by talking to company management, or pounding the pavement visiting stores, this company uses data mining systems to collect real-time sales data and other information on companies that have a web presence. Using this data, Majestic attempts to estimate company earnings more accurately than traditional research outfits."

Comments

Traditional Wall Street Research?

[eldavojohn]

But the New York-based research firm is winning converts among hedge funds who say its brand of Web-based quantitative analysis can be more accurate than traditional Wall Street research forecasts.

Possibly because "traditional Wall Street research" involves reading tea leaves and throwing down chicken bones while watching Alan Greenspan do a rain dance to the gods in hopes that our economy will pick up.

Economics and future fiscal predictions are completely theoretical. There are just too many variables involved, folks.

Cue the web spam...

[Rob T Firefly]

We can expect yet another huge rise in fake blogs, fake product reviews on Amazon and such, and paid shills in chats and message boards. Swell.

My data mining results

[CaptainFork]

based on manually mining (eg reading) Slashdot I determine a spike in Majestic's share price about now...