The hottest sensor is one of the secret weapons of

Sensor: one of the secret weapons of Wall Street traders

in the trading market with milliseconds as the unit of calculation, high-frequency trading seems to have been proud of its rivals in the Jianghu, but the arsenal of Wall Street is far more than that. There is also an artifact that can spy on the market trend, which is also popular with traders. These artifacts, including helicopters, thermal cameras, sensors and so on, have reached the forefront of the industry. Although they are not rare, they have a special task: collecting intelligence specifically for Wall Street

it is reported that there is a company called genscape in the United States that specializes in this business. Their analysts fly over the industrial plants in an oil town by helicopter with thermal cameras in their hands, and the main objects of shooting are those large oil storage tanks. By analyzing the oil storage situation of these important oil towns, they can get accurate market supply before the government oil report is released, and Wall Street investment banks and fund companies are willing to spend a lot of money to buy these information. Genscape provides analysts with the non-public reports they need through skilled monitors and data analysis technology, covering the fields of oil supply, power generation, retail sales and grain production

let's take a look at how to effectively collect data in these areas:

oil

Cushing, Oklahoma, is the delivery place of U.S. crude oil futures, so it is also the most important link in U.S. oil trading. When new oil tanks are built in Cushing, which usually means that the market is in sufficient supply, the oil price on the New York Mercantile futures exchange may fall. When Cushing's oil inventory drops, the future price may rise

every week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release a report on crude oil inventory, including Cushing's inventory. Genscape can send the survey to customers two days before the EIA report is released. From July to the end of November this year, their predictions are completely consistent with the direction of change announced by the EIA

moreover, EIA officials will consult genscape's report before releasing the weekly report. When they find that there is a big difference between the two, they will recheck the data submitted by the oil company, and occasionally find some errors

genscape not only monitors the oil supply in Cushing, but also tracks the oil shipments from European ports to the destination. They use 800 antenna stations to record the videotapes railcars of crude oil, and then track their arrival at the destination. In this process, they calculated the amount of coal burned in the United States and Western Europe

power

genscape places sensors in private areas near power plants and transmission lines. They pay certain fees to the owners of this area, so even if the power plant finds monitoring equipment, it has no choice. They estimate the starting power and the scale of power transmission by monitoring magnetic and electric fields

genscape has about 4000 electromagnetic sensors near transmission lines and power stations around the world. At the same time, it also uses some new characteristics and new physical characteristics that you can't see in the above materials. The external photography technology monitors the smoke flow of the power station to observe the production capacity of the power station

agriculture

in agriculture, genscape even uses satellite images to study grain production. Remote sensing metrics LLC cooperates with satellite companies (such as digital globe) to analyze the sales of chain stores by observing the changes in the number of vehicles in the parking lot. Satellite companies also use satellites to assess the situation of crops and the extent of damage in disaster areas

genscape's technologies are completely legal in the United States, but Wall Street will pay a high price to obtain these coveted information. Genscape's oil report charges $90000 a year

among the Wall Street investment banks, genscape's clients include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, while citadelllc is among the hedge funds. In addition, Trafigura beheer BV, a large energy trader, has a revenue of more than US $300000 a year

genscape also has bigger customers: the Department of Homeland Security and even the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security consulted their technology

genscape later obtained venture capital and expanded its business to the United States and Europe. In 2006, the daily mail and daily mail general trust PLC acquired the company with more than $10million

finally, let's take a few examples to see the performance of this company:

on August 23, 2011, the strongest earthquake in a century occurred in Virginia. At 1:51 p.m. local Eastern time, a nuclear power plant subordinate to dominion resources was affected. A minute later, genscape sent an early warning to customers, indicating that the power generation scale of the power station was hit. Morgan Stanley traders saw the warning and realized that electricity prices would rise because of the power gap. The trader bought power contracts for power stations that could benefit from the news

this summer, genscape warned customers that WTI prices may change. Cushing's inventory has been declining since July, which has pushed up the price. Many investors have successfully injected that the price difference between WTI and oil distribution will drive the system to narrow the overpressure (previously, the oil distribution price was higher), and by August, the WTI price exceeded the oil distribution price

at 12:31 p.m. on August 21, genscape told the customer that nearly 100 crude oil trucks were transported from Bakken to Stroud, Oklahoma, and unloaded in an oil pipeline that had been idle for a year, and the oil pipeline in this area led to Cushing. After receiving this information, the traders of Deutsche Bank believed that the local inventory was increasing and the oil price in the United States would fall, so they bet that the price difference using ecodrive would expand again