Alternative data is any information used in analysis that is not usually considered when making decisions. This includes proxy metrics to measure factors that are usually difficult to quantify, as well as unofficial sources that can be used to gain a deeper understanding. It provides both new ways of obtaining business intelligence and new methods of understanding information that can be derived from traditional data. Investors use this type of data to assess a company or investment, which provides more accurate insight than conventional sources.
The growth of data generation over the past decade is largely due to the increased power of computing and personal devices. Initially, there were doubts about the value of alternative data, but many organizations and investment firms have now seen its potential and adopted it.
How Is Alternative Data Generated?
Alternative data is collected through a variety of methods, such as web-scraping, acquisition of raw data, and third-party licensing. Web scraping is a process of using written code to access and gather information available online and saving it into a form that is convenient for interpretation. Raw data is unprocessed data that can be obtained from a sensor and some companies obtain licenses to access data like credit card transactions, which they then process and sell to other organizations. Alternative data encompasses several categories, such as data on app engagement and reviews, debit and credit cards, email receipts, foot traffic data from wi-fi signals, satellites, and surveys, as well as data scraped from public websites and text processing on social media.
What Is the Importance of Alternative Data?
Alternative data is gaining more recognition as the ‘new oil’ in the world of finance and investing. It is becoming increasingly popular as organizations, such as Orbital Insight, are harnessing satellite imagery to monitor parking lots and selling the data to investors in order to inform decisions on where people are shopping and when. Strategies for integrating data into investment decisions are also being developed to better utilize this valuable resource.
Why Do You Need Proxies for Alternative Data?
Web scraping has become a popular method for obtaining alternative data from the web. However, scraping large amounts of data can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are web scraping tools that make this task much simpler as they can automatically collect millions of data points in a short time. Although most websites have implemented anti-scraping protection to detect any unusual activity, such as web scraping requests, it should be noted that web scraping is not illegal, just banned on many websites. To circumvent this issue, proxy servers can be used as intermediaries between the device and other online servers. Proxies are able to hide the device’s IP address and replace it with their own, thus preventing detection by anti-scraping tools and allowing for the free and efficient collection of various types of data.
What Are the Best Proxies for Alternative Data?
If you’re looking for the most efficient and reliable way to collect data, residential proxies are the way to go. These proxies are authentic devices (PCs, laptops, phones, or tablets) with genuine ISP-issued IP addresses, making them indistinguishable from organic user traffic and impossible to detect by most anti-scraping measures. To ensure successful data gathering, you need a reliable provider with a large enough pool of residential IP addresses in various locations. OneProxy provides top-notch, ethically-sourced residential proxy servers to help you take your data gathering efforts to the next level, all at affordable prices and with a focus on client privacy.
