Nothing unfair at all. Savvy investors have used many tools in the past as well. One analyst at Tiger Fund had got a job at Macy’s in NYC in the cosmetics department before making a decision on whether to have a position on L’Oreal. Unless they have time to do their homework etc.. main street investors should stick to index funds or bonds.
Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
51–60 of 233 posts
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do they deal with underground parking in urban areas especially?
You can count cars going in and out.
Aren’t they using LEOs for this? How do they get it to hover and capture traffic patterns?
Or you might be saying having alternative methods to count traffic like cameras or other ground based counters.
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#53I was listening to a podcast on trading where there was a quant trader as a guest. He mentioned that quant firms have been doing this for years. The guest mentioned that this is no longer an advantage in quant trading as it is common knowledge and can be done by other firms.
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#54This article is very wrong to confuse "material non-public information" with hard to acquire information like counting cars in satellite photos. Remember the Matt Levine test: insider trading is about theft, not fairness. When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit…
It's almost always a good thing when somebody uses information available to them in a unique way to inform pricing decisions, since that information will then become a factor in the public value of the asset.
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#55This article is very wrong to confuse "material non-public information" with hard to acquire information like counting cars in satellite photos. Remember the Matt Levine test: insider trading is about theft, not fairness. When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit…
I wonder if stuff like this is ever a form of parallel construction for insider trading. It sounds cool - so maybe it passes the sniff test and avoids further scrutiny?
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#56This article is very wrong to confuse "material non-public information" with hard to acquire information like counting cars in satellite photos. Remember the Matt Levine test: insider trading is about theft, not fairness. When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit…
> When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit. I must be dumb, but I don't understand this statement... How is that a "theft"? You knowing that I eat 2 eggs in the morning when I don't want people to know is not you "stealing" information from me.
When a company gives you access to private information (like sales figures for the next quarter), you have an obligation not to trade securities on that information, as you are essentially taking (or reducing) the opportunity of the company to trade on that information itself. However most of my information is from reading Money Stuff, so don't take me at my word.
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly right. If you're upset about this then you should be upset that hedge funds can afford to hire smarter analysts than you, which is just silly.
I agree, but where's this end up? Why would retail investors play a game where they're almost certain to lose?
That's the why this isn't a perfect quote. Some proponents of insider trading laws pose that exact question and pursue insider trading violations in the interest of protecting the "fairness" of the markets.
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#58This article is very wrong to confuse "material non-public information" with hard to acquire information like counting cars in satellite photos. Remember the Matt Levine test: insider trading is about theft, not fairness. When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit…
> When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit. I must be dumb, but I don't understand this statement... How is that a "theft"? You knowing that I eat 2 eggs in the morning when I don't want people to know is not you "stealing" information from me.
Perhaps an analogy would help.
Suppose you are giving a prize for someone who guesses how many eggs you eat in the morning. If I watch you checkout at the grocery store and based on the number of eggs you buy, guess that you eat 2 eggs a day, and win the prize, that is not theft.
If however your chef who prepares you breakfast every morning “guesses” you eat 2 eggs, then that would be problematic.
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#59This article is very wrong to confuse "material non-public information" with hard to acquire information like counting cars in satellite photos. Remember the Matt Levine test: insider trading is about theft, not fairness. When a company insider uses private company information to trade (or colludes with an outside party to do so) they are stealing material non-public information from the company for their own benefit…
> it means that in the end we all get more accurately priced securities.
I am genuinely curious how that benefits me (or the average joe).
Re: Hedge funds use satellite images to beat Wall Street
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly right. If you're upset about this then you should be upset that hedge funds can afford to hire smarter analysts than you, which is just silly.
I agree, but where's this end up? Why would retail investors play a game where they're almost certain to lose?
They shouldn’t. Pick a Vanfuard fund, put your money in it, and check back in a couple decades.