Inside Market Data
Vol 24 No 39
CONTENT FOCUS

San Francisco-based Revere Data is expanding its classification schema to cover more international markets, to enable clients to identify like-for-like companies and supplier relationships in different countries to support algorithmic trading strategies.

Revere's president and chief executive Kevin O'Brien says that by extending the vendor's hierarchy to create the Revere International Sector Classification and mapping companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and Deutsche Börse over the past 18 months, Revere's coverage has expanded from 5,200 US companies to 11,000 companies globally, representing 60 percent of the world's listed market capitalization.

The vendor is currently doing preliminary data sourcing to extend RISC to cover companies listed on the Tokyo, Osaka and Taiwan stock exchanges, and the Korea and Singapore exchanges, and plans to extend the classification to companies listed on BM&F Bovespa this summer, after which it will add companies in Mexico, Argentina and Peru.

"Clients tell us that they like what we've done in the US, but are looking for deeper pools in the rest of the world, and they don't have a view into the linkages between companies in foreign markets. So now they will be able to find supply chains and relationships in markets that are traditionally very difficult to find information on," O'Brien says. "For example, Brazil is a hot market, but nobody outside Brazil really knows who there does what."

O'Brien says clients will be able to use the classifications to enhance their search and discovery processes to improve investment decisions and help manage risk, and to identify similar companies for use in quantitative trading models.

"The idea is that when it is complete, clients should be able to trade seamlessly anywhere in the world because they will be able to accurately compare companies," he says.

In other news, Revere is opening a new research center in Youngstown, Ohio that will see the vendor bring some research functions previously performed in India back onto US soil. O'Brien says that by locating the center in a town with low labor costs that is close to three major universities, the vendor has access to a talented pool of candidates while being able to save money over the cost of managing an offshore operation. He says the vendor will initially relocate two or three senior analysts from its headquarters in San Francisco to head the office and be responsible for hiring between 40 and 50 new staff.

Max Bowie