Curious about data science? Signal Centre’s CEO Steve O’Hare and Andrew Lane are breaking it down for you in the video below.
A ‘data revolution’ is making data science impossible to ignore. For an expert take on this incredibly powerful tool of the (literal) trade, Signal Centre CEO Steve O’Hare sat down with Acuity CEO Andrew Lane.
“For me it’s really a giant leap forward because I think that merging or fusing different types of analysis together is key,” Steve explains. While other, older methods of information analysis and intelligence are still valid, a world without data science might be like- as Steve puts it- “fighting an army of robots with a bow and arrow.”
For a primer on what data science is and what it could do for you, keep reading or check out the full video:
Data Science Basics
The web is an incomprehensibly massive knowledge base of information, most of it overlooked. By turning pictures, videos, text, and numbers into accurate quantitative data that machines can crunch, Acuity’s AI-powered tools can make sense of it- and make use of it.
“In a nutshell, we’ve got a huge amount of data out there and data science is the science around how we manage that data,” says Andrew. “What we do with it, and how we ingest it.”
Andy goes on to explain that data science has a ‘life cycle.’ Data must be captured, maintained, processed, analysed, and then communicated. The last step is his personal favourite, as there’s a real skill and art to data communication.
“The data science side of things is very interesting to us, because we can apply those analytical skills onto numbers that have come from the news stories themselves,” shares Steve. “Having access to that in an almost lightning quick reflex is really key to moving forward.”
Real-World Trading Applications
Data science isn’t new to the finance world. Think of quantitative science: Quantitative traders have long used ‘quants’ (basically data points understood through algorithms,
programmes, and mathematical models) to identify and capitalise on available trading opportunities.
Acuity specialises in the financial sector, where their data science tools are making it possible for traders to have a ‘360° view’ of the assets and trading environments they analyse. As an analyst himself, Steve uses Acuity’s data science to look at technicals and price, along with news stories, themes, and sentiment in the market as sort of ‘add-ons’ that he says improve his analysis.
Specifically in the commodities sector, AI-powered data science tools via Acuity can determine how many times a commodity’s name appears, if mentions are positive or negative, and much more in just nanoseconds.
Steve says this capability speeds up the work of traders and analysts, making their systems much more efficient- and these tools aren’t just for hedge funds and retail users either.
“There’s a whole world out there of people who can benefit from the analysis that we do, the data science that we utilise, and they probably don’t even know it yet.”
Learn more about how you can harness the power of data science through Acuity’s products here.