Prediction Dynamics Teams with Reuters for Data Integration

Responding to its customers' needs for integrated, quality data, Prediction Dynamics has partnered with Reuters for its DataScope information service. With the upcoming release of Prediction Dynamics' Crucible Version 1.1 financial prediction platform for quantitative trading, users will be able to download daily DataScope files from the Reuters FTP site.

"Quality data is very important for successful quant trading, data that's filtered, has broad coverage and history of 10-years plus," says Paul Donnelly, CEO of Prediction Dynamics. "The data has historically been kept in-house by financial institutions, but they are now realizing that it shouldn't be a core function of their organization and it can be outsourced."

Under the agreement, Crucible users can set up their DataScope accounts within the modeling platform with their user ID and password. Users can specify which instruments, assets or markets they are interested and those will be downloaded automatically each day into the Crucible system. "This eliminates the headache of manually keeping data current," says Donnelly.

He adds though that the Crucible product is data-neutral and users may still take in additional data feeds from other third-party vendors or proprietary sources. In addition, Donnelly says Prediction Dynamics is also looking to partner with other data providers as well in the future. "Where ever it makes sense for our users to take data in from, we can look to remove the integration issues," he says.

Donnelly explains that the Crucible platform enables users to predict future market behavior with engines for building and analyzing multifactor models. Users can then create trading strategies accordingly. "Models degrade over time," says Donnelly. "Some may be valid today and next week but become less relevant the further out you go so models can be updated everyday to make sure they're current and you need the data to do that." There are currently a number of users in beta testing, with the full release of Crucible Version 1.1 and the Reuters DataScope integration to be generally available by the end of July.