Wired

I know a fellow who used to run a decent amount of equity money. His specialty was retail stocks. He had a good track record. He took maximum advantage of the quarterly income reporting cycle of a few medium sized, well know big box retailers. He played that game from both the short and the long side. If you catch that right you can make some good money.

This group hired a number of part-timers around the country. These people would sit outside a specific store with a hand counter and measure traffic. Traffic does not equal sales. But if you have hard numbers on traffic your estimate on sales will be better than most.

So they had an edge. They earned it and benefited from it.

Could you define the information they obtained as “material”? Sure you could.

Could you define this information as "non-public"? Sure you could.


Should we be in the process of unfolding the onion of what has been defined as insider trading there is going to be a very big surprise. I think that all successful hedge funds and big investors have “counters” that are gathering/reviewing data. They all have (or try to have) an edge. What do you think they are paid 2&20 for?

I have said this forever. If you’re a small investor relying on public information you don’t have a chance. The S&P is ‘unched’ for a decade. Wired money made a few hundred percent.