BlackRock team uses Instagram, podcasts and job posts to nowcast markets
BlackRock’s Systematic Active Equity team uses big data and AI to spot investment opportunities and emerging themes, drawing on Instagram activity, podcast transcripts, and thousands of job postings. Researchers test whether Instagram engagement forecasts website traffic and longer-term outcomes like broker revisions and revenues, while LLMs connect themes to individual companies and scan about 15 million job posts at once.