By Eric Onstad
LONDON (Reuters) – Data provider Quandl, owned by U.S. exchange operator Nasdaq Inc, has agreed a deal to distribute a wide range of commodities data compiled by broker Marex, including speculative positioning estimates.
The two groups announced the partnership on Tuesday after a sizzling rally in commodities that has attracted investment funds back to a sector shunned for years.
The Quandl platform will offer daily Marex reports showing estimated long and short speculative positions in metals, agriculture and other commodities markets.
Exchanges such as the London Metal Exchange and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) release weekly positioning data, but those official reports track only futures, not over-the-counter activity, which Marex includes.
“You’ve basically got reports that look at a fraction of activity and there’s no real way of knowing if that fraction is representative of the whole,” said Guy Wolf, head of market analytics at Marex.
London-headquartered Marex has been distributing weekly positioning documents to its own clients, but the Quandl platform will provide daily data that customers can incorporate into their own systems.
Quandl will also distribute other Marex data, such as one that tracks risk premia, and the two will seek to develop new products, they said.
Banks, mainly in the West, have formulated “risk premia” products for institutional investors that seek to boost returns using alternative assets such as commodities.
Commodities markets have rallied this year as economic growth recovered, investors looked for a hedge against rising inflation and metals demand was expected to benefit from a green revolution.
“If you look at what’s happened in commodities markets… this is a particularly advantageous time,” said Bill Dague, head of alternative data at Nasdaq.
In 2018 Nasdaq acquired Quandl, headquartered in Toronto, which specialises in alternative data it sells to hedge funds, asset managers and other investors.
Marex, one of the world’s largest privately-owned commodities brokers, earlier this month cancelled a planned initial public offering in London due to difficult market conditions.
(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Mark Potter)
