4 ms·

I started to wonder if it was real around the point that it theorized without explanation the predictive powers of the in house tool and I was pretty convinced

I started to wonder if it was real around the point that it theorized without explanation the predictive powers of the in house tool and I was pretty convinced it was fiction about the point where they were going to start a company within a company using bitcoin. Using Facebook internal data to trade in ways no one can match isn't far fetched. Makes me wonder if Facebook should pivot to be a hedge fund based on signals no one else has access too.

chatmasta 11y ago
I've wondered that before as well. Same for Google. Both companies have absolute treasure troves of data that could certainly be used for trading signals. Interestingly, the data could be equally effective for building actuarial models and selling insurance to customers (I believe Google has stated an interest in this in the past). Does anyone know what the SEC implications would be for a company using its proprietary user-generated data as trading signals? Is there any precedent?
- sangnoir 11y ago
  > Both companies have absolute treasure troves of data that could certainly be used for trading signals. Here's what Eric Shmidt had to say on the subject:"There are many, many things that Google could do, that we chose not to do. One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try to predict the stock market. And then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that."
pookeh 11y ago
Given that the posts can be from folks that work in the company Facebook would be trading stocks for, that would count as insider trading.
- arielweisberg 11y ago
  That's if you use insider information. That's only one kind of signal that Facebook has access to. There are signals that aren't based on insider information that FB could legally trade on. Information that other people don't have access to isn't by definition insider information. It's just stuff others can't or haven't figured out.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- ikeboy 11y ago
  As long as they agreed to let Facebook use the data by signing up, then no, it's not insider trading.
wepple 11y ago
When she started the repetition of 'championships..'; for some reason it seemed too doctored to be part of real story telling.

chatmasta 11y ago

I've wondered that before as well. Same for Google. Both companies have absolute treasure troves of data that could certainly be used for trading signals. Interestingly, the data could be equally effective for building actuarial models and selling insurance to customers (I believe Google has stated an interest in this in the past). Does anyone know what the SEC implications would be for a company using its proprietary user-generated data as trading signals? Is there any precedent?

sangnoir 11y ago
> Both companies have absolute treasure troves of data that could certainly be used for trading signals. Here's what Eric Shmidt had to say on the subject:"There are many, many things that Google could do, that we chose not to do. One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try to predict the stock market. And then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that."

pookeh 11y ago

Given that the posts can be from folks that work in the company Facebook would be trading stocks for, that would count as insider trading.

arielweisberg 11y ago
That's if you use insider information. That's only one kind of signal that Facebook has access to. There are signals that aren't based on insider information that FB could legally trade on. Information that other people don't have access to isn't by definition insider information. It's just stuff others can't or haven't figured out.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ikeboy 11y ago
As long as they agreed to let Facebook use the data by signing up, then no, it's not insider trading.

wepple 11y ago

When she started the repetition of 'championships..'; for some reason it seemed too doctored to be part of real story telling.