Financial Information

June 27, 2011 — The Editors

The market for financial information can be defined in many ways. Most often it is understood to be the market used by investors who wish to study the market with an eye on decisions related to whether to invest in, and when to invest in, a patricular company’s stock, a fund of stocks, or a particular industrial sector. The leaders in the field of financial information are Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg. Today’s market size is the estimated total worldwide of money spent on financial information in 2008.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2008
Market size: $23.01 billion
Source: “Burton-Taylor Data Indicates Challenging Year for Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and Financial Information/Analysis Market,” Press Release dated February 18, 2009 and available online here.
Original source: Burton-Taylor International Consulting L.L.C.

Posted in Investor Activity, Publishing. 3 Comments »

Gold Bars

January 28, 2011 — The Editors

A National Geographic journalist, while on assignment for the journal, was given a tour of the vast Paris underground, a maze of structures excavated over the years at various levels under the surface of the Earth. Gold Bars It consists of old crypts, used and unused sewer lines, metro train tunnels, the empty quarries from which much of the stone used to build the city was extracted, and heavily fortified vaults under banks and museums. The journalist and author of the source article, Neil Shae, and his colleague, photographer, Stephen Alvarez, were taken into the vault under the Banque de France and shown the French national gold reserves which are kept there in piles and piles of gold bars, each valued at around $500,000.

Geographic reference: France
Year: 2010
Market size: Approximately 2,600 tons.
Based on the price of gold on the international market on January 28, 2011, the approximate value of the gold bars under the Banque de France is $120.1 Billion.
Source: “Under Paris,” National Geographic, page 124, February 2011. The image of gold bars we use here comes from a Banque de France Annual Report, available online here.
Original Source: Banque de France

Posted in Banking, Investor Activity, National Infrastructure. No Comments »

Small Hedge Fund Market

September 20, 2010 — The Editors

The global financial crisis that started in 2008 has had enormous ramifications of many sorts. Not surprisingly the financial sector itself has seen quite a lot of restructuring in the period since then. One area of great change has been the number of small hedge funds in existence. According to a New York Times article on the subject, many such funds are being closed down so as to eliminate their recent history of returns, or, more accurately, lack thereof. Then, the same people behind these funds simply open new funds with a clear record. Clearly this does not occur with most such small hedge funds since their numbers have fallen by 30% (and assets under management by approximately 21.5%) since peaking in number in 2007.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2007 and 2010
Market size: 12,000 and 8,400 funds respectively
Source: “Hedge Fund Managers Set Up for New Act,” September 17, 2010, pg. B1, New York Times [Online] here
Original Source: Heidrick & Struggles

Posted in Investor Activity, Market Size. No Comments »
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