Great model? Stellar analytics? Not if your data's subpar.

Solid Buildings Require Strong Foundations

It seems like every software vendor is in the analytics business these days.  This is especially true in the financial services space. Whether you're a quant, algo, hedge firm, prop trader, traditional asset manager, RIA, FA, or whatever, some vendor has a slick analytics app just for you.


From the vendor perspective, it's understandable.  Analytics has sizzle because it enables the upper tiers of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy (see graphic). In the 'DIKW' model, data is refined into information, further processed into knowledge, and then distilled into wisdom.

By promising to give clients the knowledge/wisdom they need to make smarter decisions and drive better results, vendors can charge a lot more for their software.  That's why so many of them have scrambled to the upper levels of this pyramid.
DIKW Pyramid, Source: Wikipedia.org

Here at Wall Street Horizon, we're not in the analytics business. We don't offer opinions about the prospects of stocks or any other instruments for that matter.  Here's why.

We're All About Foundations

As people generally know, and construction pros live by, to have a solid building, you need a strong and true foundation. If you don't use the correct materials, or mix them properly, or if it's not lined up in just the right way, the building will always have problems, and it might even collapse.

The metaphor applies to financial services software. Analytics may equate to finished carpentry and custom cabinets, but accurate and timely data -- as messy and unattractive as it may be -- serves as the foundation of the house. If the analytics providers don't adhere to this high standard, then their services and costs just don't make sense. Viewing data as a commodity is just like cutting corners in construction - it can set you up for major problems.

At Wall Street Horizon, we make sure the foundation is as strong and true as possible - at least with corporate events data, a crucial element in the mix.

Across the board in financial services, analysis of stocks is done largely to help investors to manage their trading and risk strategies. Those are the 'houses' investors want to build, whether it involves beating their peers by double-digit percentages, tracking an index, or simply avoiding harmful results. With or without analytics, none of this happens without a foundation of great data.

Those of us at Wall Street Horizon know the tremendous difference that superior data makes in these 'construction' projects. Accurate, comprehensive and timely corporate events data is a big piece of the overall data mix, and we deliver the best in the business.  That's due to our unique, high-tech, high-touch approach.

From basement to attic, our clients have better houses because there is Wall Street Horizon data in their foundations.