Newstracking for Investing

Interesting article, from a couple of days ago, at Reuters  about Majestic Research, a research firm that mines data on the internet to get company information which it then sells to hedge funds:

Majestic, which was founded in 2002, uses "quantitative" analysis that it claims can do the job better than traditional stock research methods, at least for consumer-sensitive companies that utilize the Internet in some way.

From modestly-furnished Majestic offices overlooking Manhattan's Central Park, several dozen math Ph.D.s, statisticians and other quantitative analysts evaluate data spewed from computers using "Web crawling" programs track sales and other information from tens of millions of Web pages or other on-line resources.

The information is used to get a better and more timely picture of sales for roughly 60 companies Majestic tracks, including Yahoo, Carmax, JetBlue and Carnival Corp.

Interesting, we could think of a lot of information we'd like grabbed from the internet, like ASPs for various products, mentions of companies in job ads, and certain phrases as they appear in SEC filings. 

But does any of this matter, or does it simply give the manager an illusion of confidence, that he has a leg up on his competitor?  Not that you can't make a business out of that--just ask every single financial publication in the world.

Also:  Note the mention of PhDs again.  Who cares.

(via)