What can the investment industry learn from intelligence operations in the 20th Century?

Analysis by Woozle Research's Pacitti

Quarterly results, earnings calls, economic releases, management meetings and expert insights have long been the core of financial analysis, but big data is fast becoming the new frontier for fund managers, writes Mark Pacitti, director of independent research company Woozle Research.

Even a cursory check of Google trends shows that big data search queries have increased 20-fold in the last four years. Institutional investors, even individual investors, now have access to unfathomable amounts of information and technological advances in computing power and algorithmic complexity allow digital data to be processed automatically and near-instantaneously. Much of the explosion in the quantity of data is being driven by new technologies such as mobile phone GPS signals, purchase transaction records, satellite imagery and posts to social media.  The sheer depth and b...