Friday, February 17, 2006

Data Mining Not Just For Geeks Hedgefunds Like It Too

If you think data mining is something just for geeks looking to scam microsoft out of a home depot gift card then you're way out of touch. For years people have laughed when I spoke of the importance of data mining, having crawl technology that could dig into the deepest treasure troves of online data and extract nuggets of gold. Right Andy? ;) Well I'm glad Seth's company put out a press release that lends a great deal of credence to my years of blabbering.

In case you don't know Seth, he's one smart individual that's not afraid to get his hands dirty. He's also got an eye for the future a lot of that stems from his understanding of marketing, data and trend analysis. Actually, he's not just smart, he's intense. But you have to be when you're as serious as he is about data.

What does Seth Goldstein have to do with data mining
Seth was the Co-Founder of Majestic Research. A company specializing in using data mining techniques to determine market trends and monitoring those trends. And just this week had a big announcement that added a great deal of credibility to data mining & interpretation as an industry unto itself.

In case you're too lazy to read the story here are some pieces you need to see.

...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...

"It's really been an invaluable service," said Isabelle Fymat, partner in the $1.2 billion hedge fund Crosslink Capital, referring to Majestic. Fymat, who tracks e-commerce stocks like Yahoo and Amazon.com, said Majestic supplies "a lot more reliable information on what is driving or hurting revenue."

...While some might dismiss such comments as hyperbole, some hedge funds say Majestic's analysis gives them a proprietary edge in a hyper-competitive hedge fund world. Wall Street investment banks are skimping on stock research in the wake of a series of regulatory probes, making it of limited value to active traders like hedge funds, they say.�

Obviously there is a lot of valuable information to be obtained from the mine that is the web. Seth is just one example of somebody that's making it his business over and over again but this is not a trend that will stop, ever.

So when I see comments on posts mocking a conclusion John Gartner arrived at based on his own experience, data set and heuristics, I get a bit ticked off. Yes, I know you're (WebMetricsGuru) just a linksterbaiter but I recommend you not get all cheeky when you just got in the game.

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 04:36 PM
Permanent Link: Data Mining Not Just For Geeks Hedgefunds Like It Too | Comments (0)

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