Bloomberg has announced that for the first time, its proprietary Bloomberg Second Measure (BSM) transaction data analytics feeds are now available via Bloomberg Data License. The firm writes that data professionals and quantitative researchers can now seamlessly connect this high-quality alternative dataset with Bloomberg’s more traditional Data License content, for early insight into the performance of consumer companies with greater depth of analysis.
Powered by billions of US consumer credit card and debit card transactions, Bloomberg writes that the BSM data analytics feeds deliver valuable insights into company performance and consumer trends in near-real-time at a three-day lag. The transaction data comes from a subset of a US consumer panel that includes 20+ million consumers and covers 3,000+ public and private companies and 4,000+ brands across industries.
Making Bloomberg Second Measure’s transaction data analytics available for use across the enterprise is Bloomberg’s latest step in developing solutions tailored for quant customers requiring new and advanced data solutions and technologies to find an edge in their investment process. The firm writes that this new offering follows the launch of Bloomberg’s Company Financials, Estimates and Pricing Point-in-Time solution that connects and integrates a broad, diverse range of datasets from multiple sources, provides historical point-in-time data and will enable linking traditional company data to more esoteric data like alternative data.
“By continuing to build out our interconnected suite of company research products, Bloomberg is a catalyst for change to the typically complex quant workflow that requires sourcing and organizing datasets from multiple providers,” says Tony McManus, Global Head of Enterprise Data at Bloomberg. “Delivering our proprietary alternative data directly alongside our traditional financial data through Data License allows quants and research analysts to make efficient, better-informed market projections with unique insights.”
The BSM transaction data analytics feeds are also the flagship data source for the ALTD <GO> function on the Bloomberg Terminal, which launched in September 2023 in an effort to democratise access to alternative data by seamlessly integrating it alongside traditional market data, broker research, estimates and news on the desktop. With this latest development, Bloomberg is building on its investment in expanding the applicability of alternative data to new use cases for its clients, the firm says.
“Making our Bloomberg Second Measure transaction data analytics feeds available for use across the enterprise with Data License is the next step in our effort to lower the barrier to entry for investment analysts to use alternative data for generating differentiated insights,” says Richard Lai, Global Head of Alternative Data in Bloomberg’s Office of the CTO. “We’re excited to continue building on this momentum to support additional research workflows and create new use cases for Bloomberg’s alternative data solutions.”
