Unlike their public markets counterparts, venture capital investors can be hindered by a lack of data to help inform investment processes. Several venture-oriented platforms have materialised to fill this void, providing numerous metrics with varying relevancy. We summarise a study that uses machine learning to identify the most relevant factors for early-stage venture capital investors.

Text is an underexploited data source for understanding asset markets. So far, academic research has studied only a tiny fraction of market-relevant text data and often focuses on a single specialised data source. As a result, text information is often represented in rudimentary ways. This report summarises a study that aims to improve stock-return prediction models by extracting contextualised representations of news text derived from large language models (LLMs).

The return of high inflation has revived the economic trauma of the 1970s concerning wage-price spirals. To compare the current conditions of inflationary pressure, we summarise a working paper by the IMF that studies the impacts of wage-price spirals on inflation. We also highlight alternative sources of relevant economic data, including salary information, that offer timely insights into wage growth and the current macroeconomic climate.

Almost 3bn of the world’s population still lacked access to and use of digital technologies in 2021. We review a recent study that explores whether investing in shared telecom infrastructure – particularly where independent companies own towers and lease them to network operators – could improve digital connectivity in some developing nations.

The potential uses for ChatGPT have grown as rapidly as its popularity. We summarise a 2023 paper that explores how the technology can assist with financial research, particularly for generating ideas and identifying data.

With ChatGPT’s rising popularity, a range of studies have considered how applicable it can be to different industries. In this report, we look at a 2023 paper assessing how effective the technology could be in aiding asset allocation and portfolio management.

In an increasingly virtual business environment, a physical presence can give investors an upper hand. A Chinese study attempts to show how corporate site visits by hedge funds can positively influence their returns. We summarise the analysis from this paper and the potential data sources that could help readers monitor site visits by Chinese fund managers.

We summarise the characteristics of price bubbles in China’s agricultural futures market and the impact of Chinese government policy on these bubbles.

The current economic climate has put a spotlight on central banks around the world. Monetary policy, however, is only directly observable in official meetings and statements. Aggregating central bank sentiment through the lens of news media may capture hidden information that has ramifications for financial markets. In this literature review, we summarise a study that employs textual analysis of central bank tones in the media to examine its impact on future changes in yields.

Published research suggests a strong correlation between global PE fund disclosures of ESG data and ESG performance post-investment. Net IRR is also found to be positively impacted by an advertised commitment to ESG. We summarise the findings of this research and also highlight several Neudata-listed data providers that may be applicable to understanding the ESG landscape within private equity.