"With cloud, data and analytics firmly in the spotlight, emerging data analytics tools and business practices are just beginning to emerge as contenders for investment. However, as investor sophistication increases, so do the risks to business from poor data and analytics processes. Here are two organisations that earned our attention for their innovative approaches to data analytics and finance. Read more on the US Department of Commerce's Free Application for Federal Business (FAC) data analytics and analytics case studies, as well as learn more about our data analytics and cloud services here. The FBI has an analytical approach to its current finance problems. One of the FBI's key responsibilities is to investigate cyber crimes and cyber security, with data analytics helping to catch those offenders. The FBI tracks and investigates criminals for cyber security crimes through a partnership with the National Cyber Investigative Joint Operations Center (NCJOC), a department of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The NCJOC shares analysis and information with the FBI to help it identify criminal threats and recommend measures to mitigate and mitigate risks. The NCJOC works in conjunction with the FBI's data analytics team, the Data Analytics Services Division. Its role is to review all financial activities related to cyber security investigations to determine potential risk. The FBI operates within the nation's top financial crime intelligence agency, which has extensive financial investigative activities, led by the Treasury Department, to uncover, identify and prosecute high-risk financial crimes and financial crimes. Senior analytics manager Dustin Acree and senior analyst Theresa Jayne recently spoke with CIO Journal about the challenges the FBI faces in data analytics and the analytic approach it has taken to its current cyber security challenges. "We've relied on analytics and data, especially in regards to"

"Economist Stephanie Kelton wants to do the dirty work of poverty for you. She specializes in analyzing earnings trends, which she then uses to measure how many dollars would theoretically earn someone out of poverty—how much is really earned for each dollar spent. She released a study showing that finance and analytic jobs have just as much earnings growth as all other jobs between 2000 and 2015. Not that they are making the high-paying salaries their proponents say they are. Kelton’s study used the averages of earnings from about 280,000 income tax data sets—each of which shows earnings for each specific job rather than overall. “The result is a large jump in the earnings of finance and analytics jobs in the decade following the"

"In a recent report, Compendium: A Catalogue of Finance Perspectives (PDF), financial analyst William S. Merrell writes: “We must confront the intractable nature of finance and try to live within it—not by manipulating the simple equations but by developing clearer methods of analytic reasoning.” In other words, analysts will need to conduct new analytical studies—data analysis and quantitative analysis—to overcome the extensive degree of mathematics required to maintain competitive positions in an increasingly analytical financial marketplace. He writes: The business models of almost every corporate and even a great many non-corporate entities are now based on information processing and analysis, both to maximize the profits of"

"Finance companies, research firms and even other financial companies now look to capitalize on insights into markets and individuals that come from big data and analytics. The analytical tools of the Internet age that sprang from the enterprise tools of the last few decades are now moving into other corners of the marketplace, such as where the finance industry is turning to them. Bank of America, for instance, found that after one year of measuring interest rates over 60,000 individuals who have lent to it through its MarketNet service, it had figured out where prospective borrowers came from — from their mobile phones — and what they were doing with their money. The bank's finance, research and investment banking units worked together to use the raw data to create analytical models that predict where to invest new capital for the bank. The bank used historical data and actual transactions to create an analytical framework that predicted whether capital markets would go up or down. The result is that the bank now has an investment strategy to move capital where it can earn a greater return. "The numbers became too powerful to ignore," said Mike Charlesworth, head of global research and strategy at Bank of America, in an interview. Earlier this year, Boston-based financial research firm First Data expanded its market data offerings with a research application that analyzes more than 250 million business transactions. The software gathers information on consumer spending, corporate spending and equity trades, and makes it available for an estimated 3,500 users to use in analyzing trends in the financial markets. "The idea is to help hedge funds and retail clients get in front of things before they blow up," said Christian Martin, a financial research specialist at First Data. Finance firms are also taking advantage of the widespread use of mobile devices. Most banks now offer customer-focused mobile apps for things like checking account balances, adding money"

"How do you quantify risk? Ask a financial analyst for an answer and they will tell you it’s important to calculate how likely it is that a portfolio will earn a certain amount of revenue in the future. But risk doesn’t stop at generating revenues. It also generates big profits. Today’s advanced data analytics and quantitative strategies are increasingly used to help financial institutions manage risk. Yet, they are largely disconnected from finance departments. One of the greatest risks of the new data-driven, analytics era is that risk is far too often focused on the front lines of financial services. These analytics, for example, help manage risk in sales finance and corporate credit departments but not finance departments. Yet, for risk, finance is where the analytics are happening. It is tempting to think risk managers can get their analytics work done better and faster by moving those jobs from the finance department to the front lines. And many have, adding more analytical work for financial analysts on the financial managers’ lists of things to do. Those investments appear to be paying off. But I believe financial analysts will be far better equipped to take on risk management and other highly analytical tasks if they are moving to front offices. Finance departments are uniquely positioned to leverage the development of data analytics and analytical techniques to make smarter decisions, to generate risk-reduction profits and to generate big risk-boosting profits, all while proving how those decisions benefit finance departments. This type of true engagement between risk managers and financial analysts could yield huge returns for financial institutions. Optimizing Risk: Improving Risk Situations By Creating Meaningful Opportunities Risk management should be focused on creating meaningful, actionable opportunities to solve problems — opportunities where eliminating risk is the ideal solution. Risk management, as it stands now, isn’t really about risk at all. Finance departments are responsible for forecasting risk, and many risk managers focus their efforts on setting and managing risk budgets. For finance departments, risks can be quantified by how likely they are to earn revenues and their related payout amounts. Finance departments also create and manage risk exposure budgets to help finance departments understand the magnitude of risk they are exposed to. The issue, then, is that risks are often measured in terms of dollars. That’s the wrong way to think about risk management, at least in financial institutions. Risk management isn’t about measuring risk. It’s about creating risk opportunities. It is about generating profits that result from the risk-reducing actions and processes. Let me explain. In finance, there are two categories of risks: (1) financial risks and (2) operational risks. Financial risks are financial risks that stem from activities within the finance department. Operations risks are risks that stem from the"

"UPS will take on FedEx’s services for the aerospace industry. In its bid to gain market share, UPS announced it is buying Fleetmatics Group’s Enterprise Transportation Management Solutions for an undisclosed amount. Fleetmatics is best known for its fleet-tracking technology and telematics services. The two firms have been at odds for years, even before FedEx bought TNT Express. FedEx has been snapping up companies and attempting to build out its own fleet-tracking network to ensure it can offer a competitive advantage. For instance, FedEx acquired an Israeli company called AirNav Solutions, and now it has partnered with Verizon to build out a new nationwide network. FedEx has also partnered with Oracle to develop a warehouse management system, and it plans to build its own analytics and security platform. UPS, on the other hand, has yet to announce how it plans to compete with FedEx. Analysts say the plan could take years to execute and save a significant amount of costs. In any case, FedEx and UPS will have a battle on their hands to grab more aerospace business. At the same time, UPS will not go away. The company will retain its own analytics capability. The deals with FedEx and Fleetmatics is likely to help UPS boost revenues, while cutting costs. The two firms are expected to become a powerful combination and could help them earn a substantial profit. With the added services, UPS will offer logistics, analytics, security, and revenue-based distribution management services. For instance, UPS will receive and analyze information from FedEx and provide analytics reports on the aircraft performance. The plan is expected to earn the firm more revenues and offer cost savings. On top of providing services like analytics, UPS will also provide data and analytics. It will analyze data that takes care of how to maintain the fleet’s performance and maintenance, how to use the equipment, and how to develop additional services. Meanwhile, Fleetmatics will sell data"

" After completing a master’s degree in finance, I thought I had studied finance to a degree sufficient to go into private equity. That proved not to be the case. Even if I had studied analytics and applied it to the same industries and companies, I would have understood things differently and the assumptions would have changed. Analytics research may offer a quantitative analysis of things, but that can never substitute for an in-depth understanding of the finance and marketing disciplines. Take car sales and finance, for example. Even if you have never worked in finance or retail, you can understand how finance works and how cars are financed. You can read about the historical and present factors that influence car sales and be"

"Even if you're earning no interest, your capital could earn you profits. If you're paying no annual fee, no transaction fees and earning up to 1.45% APY - almost three times the APY of a one-year CD at a normal bank - then consider whether earning a profit from your cash is worth it. Two years ago, investors earning 1.4% on bank one-year CDs paid an average of around $3 per $100 invested. There was less than a dollar in interest earned on the money in total. Since there was no interest to begin with, you had to make four transactions each year, even after taking out the interest. By comparison, investors earning 1.45% on a stock portfolio could earn at least $100 in total up front. Now look at where you can earn 1.45% plus earn about $7 per $100
"

"With the acquisition of research by the Philadelphia Phillies, Henry Louis "Lou" Crawford has finally achieved some of his lifetime ambitions of monetary gain and infamy. One of the most widely circulated and fully documented of investigative books in baseball history is "The Money Masters" (1930), written by Crawford, Harry Clark and Langston Hughes. Published by Albert and Marshall Field, it compiled contributions of 413 pages of financial and market analysis from professionals in four dozen major league clubs over a decade. Their report was the most in-depth of its day, covering a century of baseball and including reports about 200 players. This richly illustrated and brutally honest account revealed a world of financial scheming and paper wealth within the baseball industry that was still thriving when it was published. Ironically, Crawford started his financial career in 1900 at his father's brokerage firm in Denver. His first big paycheck came when, as a 21-year-old in 1906, he traded for and bought a small stock of the Brooklyn Dodgers for his dad. His financial analysis, along with Clark's and Hughes' analysis, still has great value. "Any endeavor in baseball will require financial sense to succeed," Crawford wrote in 1920. "Don't expect to go into business to make money, but to make money in business. Any agent, attorney, treasurer, vice-president or general manager who can't find a sound way to make profit from his player investments is bound to find himself in trouble." It's not just Crawford. Paying a team owner a hundred dollars a day for managing a team was quite common in the early years of baseball, though it has become rare in recent years. When Lou Crawford bought the Yankees in 1917, he earned only $14 a day as a baseball executive and just $100 a month as a securities broker. In 1927, he paid a dozen Yankee players $15 apiece for five months' work, earning $24,000 from the Yankee payroll alone. Like Crawford, the Phillies' new owners won"

"These players earn a few extra dollars each week and so have plenty of time to work on what they love – finance. We’ve picked out a few who can claim to be able to earn a fair amount of money from finance: Robert Perisic – Marketing Analyst Business Insider reported that he had earned about $280,000 in the first 3 years of his analyst job. He was valued at about $320,000 per year, based on Business Insider’s calculations based on Robert Perisic’s LinkedIn profile. Chetan Bhagat – Freelance Marketing Consultant According to Financial News, Chetan Bhagat earned around $24,000 on average per month since April last year. Chetan Bhagat’s consulting job began in July 2016. His firm charges a $15,000 monthly fee for its services. Warren Buffett – Investor He earned $300 million in 2005 and $20 billion in 2015. His net worth is $"

"THERE’S A LOT TO LIKE ABOUT KEYSTONE. From what I have seen, it’s a solid, well-designed website. The advisors seem more knowledgeable than your average website; and they have earned two stripes in the InvestorHub.com Advisor Scorecard: 8.3, 8.3 and 8.2. Perhaps not a big leap, but a nice step up from many websites that score about 6. A website isn’t enough to convince investors to put money with you; though it can help them figure out if you’re a good fit. So it’s important for you to get involved in researching other industries. You might be surprised that your advisors aren’t doing the due diligence themselves – but most of them aren’t. I’ve been doing more research and interviews with investors that have worked with the"

"If you are already struggling to make it on your own, as a person or a corporation, earn more before you sign. Save more, yet. Develop your analytical skills. Do the math and make calculations to earn more. Do the research. Find the truth. Find the facts that will serve your best interest and secure your future financial and life status. Every time we hear, read, and observe things that do not look like facts, we get them checked. Our emotions, not our thinking, does much more harm than good. Emotions generally revolve around emotions and miss logical thinking. It is time to put more mental effort into good research and analytical thinking, than emotional emotion. It’s important that we accept that our minds do more for us and that we do more for our minds. Got a hunch that what I said today may be wrong? Do your own research"

"Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) on Tuesday reported a full-year loss of $307 million on a 2.1 percent decline in comparable-store sales. The company, which operates nearly 2,600 stores across 31 states, largely attributed the decline in the operating income to revenue reduction of $78 million in connection with its merger with rival grocer Albertsons Cos. Rite Aid added that its net loss in the quarter ending Nov. 30, 2018, included an estimated impact of $23 million for merger-related expenses. Rite Aid reported a 2.2 percent decline in comparable-store sales to $6.3 billion. Analysts had projected a decline in sales of 2.6 percent, on average. Additionally, Rite Aid reported a 3 percent decline in"

"In June 2016, Moody's announced that, according to their methodology, Venezuela's bonds would have no risk of default if Venezuela was rated at B1 or lower, just like Portugal's were in the period 2012-14. At that time, Venezuela was rated at B3, by Moody's. They even called Venezuela a "B3 credit risk" at that time. Not only was Venezuela not rated a credit risk, they wanted to take credit for the fact that Venezuela would achieve this credit rating when they hadn't actually earned it. Moody's can calculate this with analytical tools and assume how many operations a country can do and how much profit they can make with those operations. But their credit ratings are based on what they call a comparative analysis of countries, not on analytics. In other words, the Moody's credit ratings are based on what a government can produce and how it earns its money. That is very different from calculating how the government can afford its debt. In order to do this, you need to analyze whether the government can finance its debt, that is, whether it can afford a certain amount of debt. In the 1980s, the government of Portugal was showing losses of 34-36% of revenue and no significant economic growth. The credit rating agencies said that this was acceptable. When the government stopped making such large losses, the ratings went down, and Moody's warned Portugal that if they did not stop making losses, they would downgrade Portugal to junk. After that, they decreased the credit rating. So even when a government faces a reduction in its credit rating, it doesn't mean the government can no longer afford its debt. Instead, it may be able to reduce the amount of debt that it can afford. That is why governments should never ignore credit ratings. I began to notice this when I worked in Brazil in the mid-1980s. I worked at the Finance Ministry in that period. Brazil started seeing big deficits and the credit rating agencies warned Brazil of a possible downgrade. The government"

"Google is providing financial assistance of $500 per credit. This type of financial support would normally not be an issue for small businesses, but the amount of credit requested is a large amount for these small organizations. For most businesses, $500 per credit is a significant chunk of their overall financial contribution, which might not be enough. For non-profits, the rate is a little lower, $300 per credit. Google is encouraging financial institutions to apply for this kind of financing, as it provides financial assistance to help businesses increase their profit. Not only that, but also to help them qualify for the type of funding that would otherwise be unattainable. Google Business Finance announced their campaign in May this year, which"