Thursday, August 21, 2014

Report: Thompson Reuters to Use Drones to Gather Data on Retailers

And no, drone is not a new job title at TR.
Also, my sourcing is a bit sketchier than the first Lord Thompson of Fleet might have desired
From Crowdability:

Drones Are Set to Soar
Is now the time to bet big on “drones”?
Is this sector ready to take off?
The evidence points to yes – and stocks in this industry seem poised for flight.
But if you’re a believer in this space, stocks aren’t where the real money will be made...
The real money will be made elsewhere.
Today, I’ll walk you through why we think this sector is set to soar, and where the real returns will come from....
... Here are three sectors – and a handful of stocks – that could see a significant lift from the drone trend:

1.  Finance – A friend of mine works at Thomson Reuters. His job is to secure licensing deals for all of Thomson’s data products.

He was recently telling me about a new “drone data” service they’ve been selling.  In order to get more timely information on retail shopping trends, Thomson will deploy thousands of drones across the US to record shopping mall traffic.

Using a combination of heat sensor technology and advanced video processing algorithms, they’ll know — before the rest of Wall Street — how various retailers are performing, and what consumer spending might look for the coming quarter.

This is valuable stuff. Hedge funds pay big bucks – and earn even more – for access to such timely information.

Expect to see more investors leveraging this technology to get an edge.
You could take advantage of this trend by betting on firms like Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI)...MORE