We’re only half way through January, and we’ve already seen many wonders and blunders this year.
Spotify goes beyond disrupting the music industry and makes waves on Wall Street. The company is going public, but rather than the traditional IPO route, it’s shaking things up by listing directly. It provides ‘music for everyone,’ but not ‘money for everyone’ – the company is saving millions by cutting out the underwriting process. This unusual method has the industry wondering if this could signal sea change. If successful, how many other unicorns will follow suit? Time will tell.
Blunders abound in the financial and technology world, culminating with recent news of Intel’s CEO selling stock last year after learning of the company’s chip flaws – not publically announced until this month. Free tip of the day: If the ethics or legality of your decision may come into question, don’t do it – not all press is good press.
If you have a retirement account (which we hope you do), you may be interested in learning how the cost of financial data, which continues to rise exponentially, may ultimately be eating away at your retirement account.
We’d love to hear your feedback on the types of content you want to see in this newsletter. Reply to this email or tweet your heart out to @kcdpr.
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Battle for Affordable Financial Data Hits Home
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The key to better investment decisions is access to financial data. We know banks, asset managers and high frequency traders need data to effectively do their jobs. However, you probably haven’t thought about how it’s purchased or worried about financial data fees, but you should now. The increasing cost of market data from major U.S. exchanges “threatens the very progress made possible by this democratization of the markets, and ultimately eat away at American retirement savings,” according to Business Insider’s Kirsten Wegner.
Trading firms report that fees have increased up to 700 percent for the same data usage, as compared to fees five years ago. The article equates this situation to a scenario in which you are forced to pay more for your monthly smartphone bill in eight years than you do today because of extra fees added to your billing statement, despite operation costs and the cost of the device going down. It’s a formula for disastrous customer relations and dissatisfaction.
Wegner’s article calls on exchanges to back up their data fee increases with explanations comparable to the SEC’s credit card disclosure policies, a battle cry for transparency trending throughout the industry.
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Noble Gold Investments (“Noble Gold”) is a precious metals IRA investment firm located in Los Angeles. The firm had the exclusive rights to the first gold depository located in Texas and approached KCD PR to assist with the rollout of this announcement. Despite this significant news, Noble Gold was competing in a challenging environment and struggling in terms of driving national media awareness for its business. Furthermore, the firm’s marketing initiatives were sporadic, uncoordinated and executed without a strategic approach.
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