---
title: The Early Bird Catches the Worm: How Lasting is the Value of New, Alternative Data?
url: https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4788210/
site: ML-Quant (https://www.ml-quant.com)
updated: 2026-09-26
license: Summaries CC BY 4.0; links go to the original sources
index: https://www.ml-quant.com/llms.txt
identifier: SSRN 4788210
source_url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4788210
featured: 2024-04-10
citations: 0
topic: Portfolio & Allocation
---


# The Early Bird Catches the Worm: How Lasting is the Value of New, Alternative Data?

The article investigates the influence of social media data on mutual fund managers' decisions and performance, indicating that using such data improves future returns and stock-picking skills.

- Source: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4788210
- Identifier: SSRN 4788210
- Released: 2024-03-04
- First featured: Quant Letter No. 44 (2024-04-10): https://www.ml-quant.com/issues/2024-04-10/
- Citations (Semantic Scholar): 0
- Published in: not yet
- Topic: Portfolio & Allocation

## Related

- [Displaced by Big Data: Evidence from Active Fund Managers](https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4527672/): The use of big data, like satellite imagery tracking firms' parking lots, can diminish the stock picking abilities of active mutual funds, implying that big data could replace high-skill workers in finance.
- [Who Clears the Market When Passive Investors Trade?](https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4777585/): The article investigates the role of firms in providing shares to passive investors, particularly in response to index funds' buying.
- [Machine Learning Mutual Fund Flows](https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4812038/): Nonlinear machine learning models are more effective than linear models in predicting future fund flows, with past flows and the Morningstar rating as key predictors.
- [Reaching for Duration and Leverage in the Treasury Market](https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4816018/): The article reveals that the use of Treasury futures by mutual funds varies significantly over time and across funds, influencing the variation in aggregate Treasury futures open interest.
- [Beat the Market: An Effective Intraday Momentum Strategy for S&P500 ETF (SPY)](https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4824172/): The study investigates the success of an intraday momentum strategy on SPY, an ETF tracking the SP500, which resulted in a 1985 total return from 2007 to 2024.
- [The Performance of Household-held Mutual Funds: Evidence from the Euro Area](https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4849419/): A study from 2009 to 2020 shows that Euro-area households prefer pricier, lower risk-adjusted return mutual funds, particularly equity funds, and tend to follow past returns.