The use of social-media data to inform investments is part of a broader trend toward exploiting big data, or very large sets of information that can be used to identify patterns or trends.
BlackRock Inc. ’s Scientific Active Equity team uses big-data analysis in a number of its funds, says Jeff Shen, co-head of investments in the SAE Group and the head of emerging markets at the company. For example, individual investors dominate the Chinese stock market, and it can be difficult to figure out what they are thinking about, he says. The SAE group gathers information from the most popular social-media sites in the country in a bid to gain insight into a market that has been historically difficult to gauge.