Unfiltered data

On Sunday, June 18, 1815 Wellington's army defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The momentous news was brought to financier Nathan Rothschild in London by an agent who took a boat from Ostend, giving the banking house a timely edge that translated into vast trading profits. Indeed, Rothschild received the news before the government or the press.

Information unfiltered by the usual channels can be extremely valuable, as Mr. Rothschild proved.  This, of course, depends almost entirely on the reliability of the source.

Internet tools, social media in particular, offer boundless sources of good information (mixed in with even more misleading data) for anyone creative enough to look for it.

This Forbes article focuses on the use of Twitter messages by farmers and commodity traders to improve their buying and selling strategies. Here's one example from the story:

"Ryan Weeks, another fifth-generation farmer, lives in Juniata, Neb., which is little more than a few streets and a cemetery. He has 832 followers, which is more than Juniata's entire population. Weeks recently used Twitter to broadcast that there were 'a few pollination issues on bottom of ears. Not field, hybrid, or company specific.' "

Once in possession of inside info on "pollination issues" or any other such tidbit, one obviously needs to know what to do with it.