HN Explorer

Ask HN: A Good Idea?

17 points by giantg2 ↗ HN
What if I built a system that correlates ADS-B tracking of helicopters around Wall Street and the major news stories, then compared that with historical trends. Using this data to predict what big moves/problems could be coming? Obviously this would miss smaller things, but could be useful for off-hours sensitive meetings. Almost like the Twitter sentiment tracker, but for the Wall Street executives.

No idea if this would work. Good idea?

26 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 48.8 ms ] thread
Nextgrid
I wouldn't be surprised if it's already done.
sjg007
You won't know until you do the analysis but given Zoom and conference calls I suspect that the majority of these things happen remotely.
giantg2
Yeah, I thought this would be good for crashes only, when the subject might be too sensitive to have on a call.

I probably won't build it or even do analysis on it. But maybe I'll look into it if there aren't any issues that other find with the idea.

zinglersen
The thinking is good but no one can verify the idea for you.

Travel data is an interesting data point for a lot of financial analysis, just to name a few:

- Hedge funds are tracking private jets to find the next-megadeal.

- Hedge funds are tracking frequency of delivery trucks going in and out of factories.

- Hedge funds are analyzing satellite images of parking spots outside of Walmart.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-02/hedge-fun...

giantg2
Very cool. Thanks for the info. Based on that I assume this is a non-viable idea. If they know about it for offense, then they will likely be including it as part of their defense (conceal their own movements).
warrenm
Doesn't mean the idea is "non-viable"

In fact, it may be precisely the opposite: that it (or something cloesly akin) is being used already generally validates the basic principles of any given "idea"

giantg2
True, I mean I can't become a millionaire and quit my job.
jmalicki
Just like Sergie Brin and Larry Page couldn't quit their jobs and become millionaires because search engines already existed, or Mark Zuckerberg couldn't quit his job and become a millionaire because social networks already existed :-)
giantg2
Yeah, but unlike them, I'm a loser who probably can't make anything worthwhile.
aspenmayer
I disagree. I see your posts on HN, and they seem worthwhile when I come across them. You belong where you end up, to a point. Don’t sell yourself short. We can all surprise ourselves.
mettamage
I wish I could work for a hedge fund, and do these type of fun things. As a European it seems quite difficult to find an in or to know where an in is.
giantg2
I feel like there are very few positions available like that. Even here in the US I know I could never get into something like that.
darkhorn
Can't you get historical flight records from flightradar24.com?
btgeekboy
FR24 allows aircraft owners to pay to block historical data and tracking.
toomuchtodo
ASDB Exchange [1] does not filter historical nor real time ADS-B data. Commercial use does require a license, enthusiast use does not.

Jack Sweeney [2] was/is using the above to tweet Musk's jet movements [3], and has pivoted to tracking Putin's and Russian oligarchs' aircraft [4] [5].

[1] https://www.adsbexchange.com/data/

[2] https://twitter.com/JxckSweeney

[3] https://twitter.com/ElonJet

[4] https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/articl...

[5] https://twitter.com/i/lists/1307414615316467715

dude187
I used to use ADSB Exchange in a similar fashion, but there's no longer a free feed unless you contribute data. For my personal app it wasn't worth it.
thebenedict
I did light research into a similar idea, and got stuck linking aircraft registration numbers from ADS-B to businesses. Many aircraft owned by corporations and high net worth individuals are registered to subsidiaries or holding companies. I wasn't able to follow the chain of registrations through opencorporates.com.

I probably didn't exhaust all possibilities -- wonder if this is a solved problem.

runjake
I don’t know.

I’d have to see an MVP, first. Build one.

This isn’t meant as a smarmy answer — I’d be in the target market, but I can’t give you a useful answer with nothing but an idea.

smileysteve
I used to live across the street from a federal reserve branch. Correlation was not causation.
keiferski
This is sort of a plot point in the TV show Billions. IIRC, they track private jets and figure out that one company is about to acquire another.
Raed667
too bad the quality dropped so much in the last season.

the one that stoodout in stupidity for me was that one company that was supposed to be sharing their extra wifi to the public for free whnen not mining crypto currencies or something like taht...

d--b
My thought is that by the time helicopters patterns are significantly disturbed, the news is already out.