经济学人下载:经济数据 先人一步 偷瞄一眼

Finance and economics
财经商业

Economic data
经济数据

Peeking early
先人一步，偷瞄一眼

A continuing kerfuffle over releases of privately sourced data
私人发布的数据持续引发热议

DATA releases stir emotions as well as moving markets.
数据之发布既挑动人们的神经，也撼动着市场。

Concerns have grown about trading firms getting early peeks of certain releases.
而越来越多的目光正投向贸易公司在数据发布前一窥其里的做法。

The case causing the biggest fuss is a widely watched consumer-sentiment index distributed by Thomson Reuters under a contract with the University of Michigan.
引发最大争议的数据正是备受关注的消费者信心指数—路透社和密西根大学签约后负责发布此数据。

Mark Rosenblum, a former Thomson salesman, claims he was fired after querying whether the release violated insider-trading laws because it went to high-speed traders, paying $6,000 a month for their feeds, two seconds before regular subscribers saw it.
前路透社销售人员，Mark Rosenblum声称，他本人因调查数据的发布过程是否违反内幕交易法而被解雇，而高速交易者每月花6000美元就可以比普通使用者提前两秒接收到数据。

The firm says he was sacked for falsely claiming credit for sales.
公司则声称他是因为虚假承诺而被开除的。

It is trying to get his wrongful-termination suit dismissed because he took his case to the FBI, not the Securities and Exchange Commission, and so does not qualify as a whistleblower.
路透社正尝试让他的非法解雇案被驳回，理由是Mark将此案起诉到FBI而不是证券交易委员会，因而也不能被视为泄密者对待。

The case has attracted the interest of New York's attorney-general, Eric Schneiderman, who is investigating whether this and other cases undermine fair play in markets.
此案已吸引到纽约司法部长Eric Schneiderman的关注，他正在调查此案和其他案件是否侵犯了市场中的公平竞争原则。

In July Thomson suspended the high-speed feed.
七月，路透社停用了高速接口。

In an affidavit seen by The Economist, Mr Rosenblum says a colleague warned him that chasing down who is getting the numbers ahead of time would affect profits, and that his line manager advised him to stop being a hero.
在《经济学人》看到的宣誓书中，Rosenblum先生表明受到同事的警告：追踪是谁提前拿到了数据将影响利润，而主管经理建议他别再逞能。

He also claims that a colleague in India, who helped disseminate the data, suggested that a group of 17 banks, brokers and hedge funds—among them some of the biggest names in American finance—were getting the headline number up to one hour, not just seconds, before the 9:55am release time.
他还表示，负责发送数据的印度同事暗示银行，做市商和对冲基金等17家公司组成的团体—其中有一些美国金融界巨头的名字—能够比上午9:55的正规发布时间提前一小时而不是几秒钟获得重要数据。

Thomson Reuters says it believes Mr Rosenblum's case to be unsubstantiated and without merit.
路透社表示认为Rosenblum先生的控告信息不实，而且没有价值。

Legally, this is a grey area.
法律上这是个灰色区域。

To some it may seem unfair that deep-pocketed trading outfits can buy an early look at market-moving numbers.
对一些人来说，这可能看起来不公平—高昂的交易费用就能买来提前窥探数据的权利，而这数据足以撼动市场。

But there are no regulations governing selective disclosure of private data, unlike sensitive corporate information or government data.
但对选择性公开私人数据的行为进行管制的条例尚未出现，这与敏感性的企业数据和政府数据不同。

The SEC can act only if it suspects securities fraud.
证券交易委员会只能对确实可疑的证券欺诈采取行动。

Meanwhile, traders will continue to pay for early looks, even though, as one regulatory source puts it: Some feel it's extortion.
同时，交易者也将继续为了提前看到数据而支付费用，尽管正如一位监管人所说，有些人觉得这就是一种勒索。

They could happily do without it and instead rely on the speed of their machines for an edge.
他们本能够依靠计算机的运行速度而非这类手段来取得令人欣喜的优势。

But that doesn't help when others are getting the number whole seconds or minutes earlier.
但其他人提前几秒钟或几分钟获得数据时，这却行不通。