Hedge funds are expected to benefit from a new system that will surf the far corners of the Internet universe for any bit of investment-useful information. Monitor110, set for a launch early next year by Roger Ehrenberg, who used to head funds of hedge funds at Deutsche Bank, will depend on search engine Technorati to cover some 50 million - and growing - blogs for anything that could help analysts evaluate information that could matter in making investment decisions. “The platform is similar to the data portals that investors are use to, but the difference is that it tickers the unstructured universe,” Ehrenberg, president and chief operating officer of the Monitor110, said in a Financial Times interview. Users of the new automated system will be able to zero in on the info they want by defining specific companies or investment themes, and will be able to avoid data from less reliable sources by setting “tolerance levels” on Monitor110. Commenting on the system, Scott Lessing of Citigroup’s investment research department told FT, “It’s important to know that the smoke is out there and that others see it. There may be more information value in online trends in the aggregate: 5,000 more web mentions of a product than the week before could be an important signal for an analyst cover the product’s manufacturer.” According to FT, 10 hedge funds are currently trying out the system.
