I must say this is a “good” thing for the SEC and gladimage someone moved on it as there is no other federal agency that needs big data and intelligence analytics worse.  By contrast you can see what Reuters is offering with adding a new tweak so you can see when fat ladies think about singing, when they sing and worse yet when they become “drama queens”:)  The SEC does catch some folks with bad math and algorithms here and there and it does make the news, like this guy who for two years knew his calculations were off but still continued to run the…talk about flawed data and come to think of it, who did he sell this to? 

SEC Sues Quant–Undisclosed Error in Trading Algorithm- Miscalculating “Risk”-Healthcare Software Evaluates This Factor Too


With everybody selling data today and making billions you can bet he had some buyers of “flawed data” that had no clue as most consumers are naïve and believe all the formulas and algorithms created are “accurate”..not so when it comes to money as some take on a little different characteristic that is more like “desired” results and that’s been going on for a long time.  It has to get better than this:

”Hey dude let’s crunch some numbers and see if we can come up with some analytics to sell”

 

Here’s a good example I found a couple years ago and it made the rounds when I found my former doctor who had been dead for 8 years still listed in the after life on the web, in other words flawed data as she was not still alive and seeing new patients as the many sites that rank and put information out on doctors and hospitals said…see how far this goes back.  Believe it with flawed data as there’s more of it out there than you can shake a stick at. 

HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor

Recently too on the web there has been a few folks talking about the usefulness of all the “big data” and they make good points as some of it is not useful but folks take it and write queries and will sell anything they can create a data base with, and more and more of that is appearing.  I like good clean data and not the marketing rubbish out there as is does nothing for me and others and just clouds the waters.  Just because data exists and has value in one place doesn’t mean that it’s open game to query with any kind of other data to sell, but boy are the query folks all over it.  Sometimes they do find good uses and we get that too, but being able to tell the difference is a challenge for sure, look at clinical trial data for one area as lies and other types of substantiation are in the news all the time.    These folks at the MIB are marketing their asses off too and they are far cry from what they started out to be a number of years ago. 

The MIB – Health Insurance Bureau Business Intelligence Mining May Go Beyond Just Healthcare Information


Too bad our Congress can’t look at big data, duh?  Wall Street though is all over it.  We just end up getting another dose of abortion talk as they are not up to speed and that seems to be the “default” topic of distraction as it makes them look like they are taking a stand on something valuable, not. 

Use of IBMWatson Technology in Congress Would Allow For Smarter Laws and Decision Processes With Bonus Points For Lowering Over All Impact of Lobbyists

 

I wrote the short blog post almost 3 years ago and I’ll be darned if we don’t need a government department like this:

“Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?

Here’s the analytics Reuters is using for the “fear” and image“emotions” index and you could get a real education if you read up here on what’s going on with algorithms and queries.  Gee, what if we bought into this in healthcare?  Now that’s a scary thought indeed.  Reuters is not the only one into this by any means. 


 

MarketPsychData.com demonstrates our text-analysis based investment tools. Below, the MarketPsych 90-day average Fear index displays the amount of Fear expressed in financial social media (green line) over a candlestick chart of the S&P 500 index.”

Of course I write about this as with all of the data queries and sale of data that happens today, some of it encroaches on ethics in more ways than one.  It would be nice to have folks study their queries and algorithms a little longer before dumping them out to sell.  It’s getting harder today to create good software as in the news the last couple of weeks you can read articles as such talking about Goldman Sachs and others having issues with the platforms they are creating with code not being ready yet for prime time.  In healthcare we certify medical records and the software goes though some pretty rigid testing, but it happens there too with software updates being needed before some doctors could collect their stimulus money.  This was big old GE that had to create a fix. 


GE Centricity EHRs Need To Fix Their Algorithms (Math)-Some Customers May Not Be Able to Attest Until The End of November After the Software Update

So what in the heck is Congress going to do when it comes to a hearing on the Facebook IPO?  Will they understand it at all?  They are busy looking at the framework and not the algorithms for accuracy…duh?  I have a series I write called “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms” they chapter 32 and you can read more on that topic at the link below, because it’s true and I would not want to be in the IT Department of NASDAQ today and you could clearly see the CEO didn’t get it either, he’s a figurehead when it comes to complicated algorithms and only your programmers know for sure and they have to determine what to put out in the press that the layman “might” comprehend, much less Congress. 

Facebook IPO – The Ultimate “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” Chapter 32 - Nobody is Immune In the World of Complicated Computer Code and Formulas Today

 

Do you thing many would understand “over clocking of server processors, nope. 

Gamers Are Not the Only Ones to Over Clock Processors-Turns Out It’s Done on Wall Street To Run Those Algorithms at Rocket Speed

Well we don’t know what else to do with these folks so slap out a fine:)


High Frequency Trading Firm Fined $850k for Losing Control of an Algorithm in Rapid Succession Buying–Bad Math and Some Killer Algos At Work- Keep Occupying…


Now that I have covered a few topics is this enough to bring about fear?  It could be and if that’s the case then fear of the markets will continue to grow as flawed data and bad algos continue to infiltrate. 

But this is not the worst of all of this though as all this activity with flawed data and spun marketing makes billions for companies, banks and so on and keep inequality growing sadly so maybe the SEC can get handle on some of this at least.  Excise taxes for the data sellers are something that needs to e addressed today as when you look at corporate profits being at an all time high and wages at the lows we have today, this is what does it all the way around and until some folks come out of denial it won’t stop. 

I thought I was the only one talking about this but recently was contacted by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences that told me to keep blowing the horn and that someone will eventually listen.  It’s all about the math, algorithms, data, and “flawed data” that creates markets sometimes where they don’t belong. 
image


You know when I have to pay an excise tax on a tire that I need for my car as a consumer and then look at the billions corporations make selling and brokering data, it bothers me as the consumer is stuck with this dated excise tax and corporations have none in this area.  Sure it’s a new idea but technology has changed and we need those new ideas, be it mine or someone else's.  Like I keep mentioning that is Walgreens made just under $800 million in 2010 on selling data only, you can see how much is out there to tax and the billions made when group banks and corporate America together in this game. 

We Pay Gasoline Tax to Keep Up the US Highway Infrastructure–Why Not Tax the Data Selling Companies and Banks to Keep Up the US Government IT Infrastructure? A “Buffett Tax” Alternative

To quote Kevin Slavin on his video on Algorithms…future looks pretty good if you are an algorithm, not so if you are a human.  If you want to look at some everyday examples in the Attack Series, here’s the link below and it has a permanent spot on the Medical Quack at all times if you scroll a little.  Let’s hope the SEC can make some major moves in their analytics and with keeping things clean as they are about all we have anymore.  BD

  Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for 35 Chapters–on How Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You–Updated 6-24-2012

 




Something has been quietly changing at the SEC, the agency whose reputation was savaged by the financial crisis when regulators were accused of being asleep at the switch, and also took a severe beating for failing to seize multiple opportunities to stop Bernie Madoff before he bilked investors out of $65 billion.

Over the last year, the SEC has ramped up its ability to ingest and analyze the data that floods the market on a daily basis – and thanks to its new analytics technology, it has been able to more effectively pinpoint market abuses, Bayer notes.

Bayer has also been working with two Big Data experts – Jeanne Ross from MIT and Barb Wixom from the University of Virginia, who are providing the SEC with insights into emerging and evolving best practices in technology, he says. “Their technology case studies cover a range of companies and it gives us a broader view of innovative practices across industries. From a big data perspective, they inform us of how social media companies are analyzing their data. Jeanne helped me to understand the positive impact of "gamification" on learning and business process.”

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/240002647

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