Tools Link Blogs to Markets

In the US, search research and analytics firm FirstRain has introduced two qualitative analytics packages to report on the interaction between blogging and stock movements.

President and CEO Penny Herscher explained the reason behind the launch: 'Blogs are where many of the most intriguing questions, trends and ideas first come to light. Manually finding meaningful information from the volume of meaningless chatter is just not practical, even for the largest firms.'

The first tool, the FirstRain Blog Monitor, draws on the firm's MarketScore algorithm that identifies and analyzes the most influential blogs from the hundreds of thousands across the web. The platform identifies spikes in blogging activity for selected companies and sectors, and provides line graphs visualizing these trends as well as lists of the underlying blogs. Reports are available for four sectors: technology, healthcare, energy and investing.

In addition, the firm has launched a service called Capital Markets Monitor to offer insight for financial professionals on their investments, the stakeholders driving conversations, and new opportunities. A Top Movers Report is also available, which analyzes the stocks that are experiencing the most movement in a sector, and presents what's being said about those companies in the news and blogs, as well as graphs tracking the arrivals and departures of executives, with drill-downs into the specific announcements.

'The investing and management communities have largely been without a comprehensive strategy when it comes to exploiting the impact that blogs have on the markets,' commented Sean O'Dowd, Capital Markets Senior Analyst at market intelligence agency IDC Financial Insights. 'FirstRain's reports are an important step to bridging this gap in the research process.'

Both the Blog Monitor and Capital Market Monitor are now available by subscription.

FirstRain applies search, extraction and pattern detection technology to the web. The firm has more than 150 employees, headquartered in Foster City, California, with additional offices in New York and Gurgaon, India.

Web site: www.firstrain.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.