• YipitData integrates one of the largest and fastest growing email receipt panels into its data offering, expanding coverage and increasing product granularity and accuracy. (Full announcement)

• Omney Data - Web data tracking retailer pricing and promotional activity/discounting.
• Bloomberg Tesla Tracker - Tracks Model 3 production by counting VIN sequences across National Highway Traffic Safety Administration registrations, social media, and user submissions.
• Verbatim Advisory Group - Survey data focused on business services, consumer products, retail & restaurants, industrials & energy, and TMT.
• Caserta - Builds alternative data implementation systems for hedge funds and tier-1 banks.
• Moody’s Data Alliance - Data portal tracking commercial and industrial loans to private companies. (Integrity Research, subscription required)
• AlphaLetters - Research provider that manually reviews and summarizes top academic papers on quant investment strategy.
• See full public database of 277 data providers.

• VisibleAlpha, a research interface, announces investment from HSBC, joining a group of several other sell-side investors. (Intergrity Research, subscription required)
• Neudata, a data consultant, launches a use-case research service for investors to apply alternative datasets for different investment narratives. (Neudata)
• Autotrader (LON:AUTO) - Tracks listing counts, dealer counts, key product penetration rates, and UK used car transactions. (YipitData)

New Jobs

• Alternative Data Investment Strategist - Investment Management Firm (Stamford, CT)
• See 60 other openings for Investment Research, Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and Data Scientist

Consulting Projects (NEW)

• Consulting project for transaction data experts: Projects for data analysts or scientists with experience making KPI estimates using email receipt and/or credit card data. Requires knowledge of unbiasing and modeling techniques beyond simple growth rate analysis. Competitive compensation. Contact jobs@alternativedata.org for more information.

News & Insights

• A report from Morgan Stanley and Oliver Wyman estimates that 40% of employees on the buy-side will require fundamental retraining to improve data and analytics capabilities. (Oliver Wyman, long read)
• SAE, the quant arm investment unit within BlackRock, uses alternative datasets to turn out tools for the asset manager's traditional investment groups. (Financial Times, subscription required)
  • Economic gauges used across investment teams are created by SAE using internet searches, online invoices, and traffic patterns.
  • Over 37% of SAE employees are PhDs in computer science, physics, and engineering.
• Datasets used to track Tesla Model 3 production include Bloomberg’s new VIN tracker, U.S. import records, and imagery of factory lots. (Bloomberg)
• Earnest Research, a credit card data provider, reports that HelloFresh surpassed Blue Apron in share of the $5bn American meal-kit market.(Recode)
• Funds that access public filing information see 1.5% higher returns in the following month than funds using no public information. (Bloomberg Brief, Full Paper)
  • The research had its flaws, however, in identifying hedge funds accurately. (Integrity Research, subscription required)
• Insights from survey at JPMorgan quant conference in Asia. (@RobinWigg)
  • 53% say sentiment data is most promising data type.
  • Lack of talent and high fixed cost are top barriers to entry in using big data.
• James Rosseau, Chief Commercial Officer of LegalShield, discusses data generation, application, and backtesting of Law Index dataset, which uses legal activity to forecast economic conditions. (SeekingAlpha)