Group Co.
40% of Buy-Side Lost Money Due to Bad Event Data and Lost Five-Figures
Traders Magazine Online News, September 18, 2017
Wall Street Horizon, an alternative data provider specializing in corporate event intelligence, today released the results of its Corporate Event Research Survey. Conducted between August 17-23, the survey polled over 100 institutional market participants, nearly two-thirds of whom were quantitative or discretionary fund managers.
Key findings from the survey included the following:
- Nearly half (45%) of respondents reported losses or missed a trading opportunity due to an incorrect event date. 40% of those who lost money said the loss was in excess of $10,000 on a single trade, while multiple respondents pegged a shortfall in the millions.
- Knowing when an event changes – both for alerting and back-testing purposes – is functionality that an overwhelming majority (80%) would like to have. Currently no event data vendors provide this capability for tracked events beyond earnings. An equal number of respondents (40% each) indicated they want event change notifications for competitive monitoring purposes and for tracking companies they care about.
- Respondents don’t believe that speed is a significant challenge when it comes to event data tracking. Instead, the vast majority noted difficulty in finding data (42%) or inaccurate data (38%) as their primary struggles.
- Legacy event data providers are generally seen as having significant room to improve when it comes to accuracy, as only 12% of respondents believe that the event data they consume is “very accurate”. The majority (54%) believe their event provider’s data is “somewhat accurate” at best.
- Earnings release dates remain the event type utilized by most (82%), but the tracking of investor conference dates (65%), buyback dates (52%), dividend payment dates (52%) and shareholder meetings (36%) are all growing in popularity.
The full survey results can be found here.
“In today’s highly sophisticated, data-driven investment environment, the impact of bad data can be catastrophic. As this survey bears out, this is especially true with event data, where inaccurate or delayed information can literally cost investors millions,” said Wall Street Horizon CEO Barry L. Star.
He continued: “The ability to know precisely when events move is also functionality that investors and traders are increasingly demanding, which makes sense given the importance of this data to alpha. Based on the survey results and conversations with dozens of institutional participants, we see this ‘breaking event’ capability for both for alerting and back-testing purposes as the holy grail for event data, and we’re actively working to incorporate it into the Wall Street Horizon offering.”
For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:
Comments (0)