4 ms·

I wonder how many people trade on this information already.

patrickk 10y ago
If you Google "hedge fund satellite data", you'll get loads of results, e.g: > Every five minutes a satellite captures images of China’s biggest cities from space. Thousands of miles away in California, a computer looks at the shadows of the buildings in the images and draws a conclusion: China’s real estate boom is slowing. > Traders at BlackRock, the money management giant, then use the data to help choose whether to buy or sell the stocks of Chinese developers. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-next-generation-of-hedge-fund-stars-data-crunching-computers.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-nex...
- zeristor 10y ago
  With this in mind have people been gaming the system? A building on its own is a liability, its only worth something if it has occupants (or property prices are rising)
- piercebot 10y ago
  China is hard, though, because it's cloudy very often. Having a fleet of satellites in orbit with a ~15 minute revisit rate will be game changing to making sure you find exactly what you're looking for on the day you're looking for it.
matheweis 10y ago
They already do - several years back I was at a supercomputing conference and one of the presenters was processing satellite data, counting cars in parking lots so traders could estimate revenue of certain large retailers. That was 6+ years ago... Imagine combining that with modern ML (not so much for the car counting but the revenue estimates based on that)
piercebot 10y ago
Not just for traders, but this is really important for combating fraud, waste, and abuse. The World Bank, for example, makes lots of overseas investments in places where it might not be convenient to send representatives to check up on the progress of, say, a factory for which they have funded the construction. They'll receive monthly reports about the factory and how many people it's employing, and when they finally go check up on it, it's just a guard house and a pile of rubble. Having a fleet of satellites that you can use to monitor your investments will definitely make it much harder to get away with stealing money through this type of fraud.
- sah2ed 10y ago
  > The World Bank, for example, makes lots of overseas investments in places ... Perhaps you meant the International Finance Corporation (IFC)? The World Bank's mandate is primarily to give out loans to developing nations. The IFC is the arm of the World Bank Group that makes investments.

If you Google "hedge fund satellite data", you'll get loads of results, e.g: > Every five minutes a satellite captures images of China’s biggest cities from space. Thousands of miles away in California, a computer looks at the shadows of the buildings in the images and draws a conclusion: China’s real estate boom is slowing. > Traders at BlackRock, the money management giant, then use the data to help choose whether to buy or sell the stocks of Chinese developers. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-next-generation-of-hedge-fund-stars-data-crunching-computers.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-nex...

zeristor 10y ago
With this in mind have people been gaming the system? A building on its own is a liability, its only worth something if it has occupants (or property prices are rising)
piercebot 10y ago
China is hard, though, because it's cloudy very often. Having a fleet of satellites in orbit with a ~15 minute revisit rate will be game changing to making sure you find exactly what you're looking for on the day you're looking for it.

matheweis 10y ago

They already do - several years back I was at a supercomputing conference and one of the presenters was processing satellite data, counting cars in parking lots so traders could estimate revenue of certain large retailers. That was 6+ years ago... Imagine combining that with modern ML (not so much for the car counting but the revenue estimates based on that)

piercebot 10y ago

Not just for traders, but this is really important for combating fraud, waste, and abuse. The World Bank, for example, makes lots of overseas investments in places where it might not be convenient to send representatives to check up on the progress of, say, a factory for which they have funded the construction. They'll receive monthly reports about the factory and how many people it's employing, and when they finally go check up on it, it's just a guard house and a pile of rubble. Having a fleet of satellites that you can use to monitor your investments will definitely make it much harder to get away with stealing money through this type of fraud.

sah2ed 10y ago
> The World Bank, for example, makes lots of overseas investments in places ... Perhaps you meant the International Finance Corporation (IFC)? The World Bank's mandate is primarily to give out loans to developing nations. The IFC is the arm of the World Bank Group that makes investments.