Most of us think we’re being smart investors.
We read quarterly reports.
Go through investor presentations.
Listen to earnings calls.
Compare last quarter’s numbers.
Then we make an educated guess about where the stock is headed.
But here’s how some hedge funds play the game.
They don’t wait for earnings.
They try to estimate them before the company even reports them.
Here’s a crazy example.
Imagine knowing how busy every Walmart store in America is without ever stepping inside one.
Some hedge funds use satellite imagery and AI to count the number of cars parked outside thousands of Walmart and Target stores over weeks and months.
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More cars than usual?
It could mean more shoppers.
More shoppers could mean stronger sales.
Stronger sales could mean better-than-expected earnings.
By the time the company announces its results, they’ve already built their conviction.
And this isn’t some movie plot.
Research from Berkeley Haas found that funds using satellite-based parking lot data were able to generate up to 4.4% excess returns around earnings announcements, while most retail investors were trading after much of that information had already been reflected in prices.
Think about that.
While we’re reading what happened last quarter…
They’re measuring what’s happening right now.
Parking lots.
Cargo ships.
Credit card spending.
Supply chains.
Weather patterns.
This is called alternative data and it’s one of the biggest reasons institutional investors have an edge.
That’s the mindset we’re inspired by at Stratzy.
We spend countless hours researching markets, studying trading systems, analyzing live market data, and running lakhs of simulations before a strategy ever reaches our users.
Because we believe great investing or trading shouldn’t be driven by gut feel - it should be driven by data, research, and proven systems.
We’re working towards a future where institutional-grade investing isn’t a privilege - it’s accessible to every single retail trader