• With companies revising their forecasts, and governments scrambling to put out up-to-date statistics, more investors are turning to alternative data to gauge the impact of the global spread of the coronavirus.
• The top datasets identified by BattleFin’s Tim Harrington include supply-chain tracking information, social-media-sentiment analysis, and web-traffic data.
• “Traditional information and data isn’t timely enough,” the founder of Eagle Alpha said.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

As investors look for a lifeline in what has been a rocky few weeks in the market, many are hoping their saving grace comes in the form of nontraditional datasets.

The novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has thrown global markets into disarray. And with traditional data — like corporate reports and government statistics — being revised or on a time delay, investors are plunging into alternative data streams that can provide them more up-to-date info.

On BattleFin’s Ensemble platform, there were 35 datasets related to COVID-19 as of March 12. On Ireland’s Eagle Alpha, there were 49.

“Traditional information and data isn’t timely enough,” Emmett Kilduff, the founder of Eagle Alpha, said.

On Eagle Alpha’s platform of more than 1,200 alt-data vendors, 59% update daily, Kilduff said. On a call Eagle …continued .
[Source: Business Insider]