This is the first in a series of articles on what I’m referring to as ‘alternative finance.’ This is not to be confused with DeFi or next-generation finance, rather, it’s alternative in the sense of falling outside mainstream, conventional Wall Street thinking. The markets are entering new territories, and old models often don’t hold up in practice. In this series — — however long it ends up being — — you’ll be introduced to some ways of thinking about investing, trading, and portfolio management that you perhaps haven’t heard before. Are these strategies right for you personally? …

If you’ve been paying even slight attention to the news this past week, you’ve probably heard about the historic price movements in GameStop (GME) stock, the Reddit / Main Street vs Wall Street hedge fund narrative, and multiple interpretations of what it all might mean. I’m not going to try and interpret the larger ideological significance of these events. What I will attempt to do is alleviate some confusion about how the securities markets work and how that informs the context of the story.

But before I get to that, a disclaimer: This article is provided solely for informational purposes…

The modern business world is captivated by data science and analytics. It seems like in almost every enterprise there is talk of needing to bulk up the data science and analytics functions to solve all conceivable business problems and chart the company towards endless success. In more cash-rich operations, management often seeks to go even beyond analytics and towards vaunted ‘AI’ solutions, generally caught up in Silicon Valley hype and expecting the state of AI to be decades (or even centuries) beyond its actual current state. …