Helpful Resources
For those who want to dig deeper
Note: This article is updated on an ongoing basis to reflect all helpful resources that have been posted and was last updated on April 10, 2020.
With Endless Metrics, I try to be as transparent as possible about the methodology and rationale behind all the analysis that supports each article. A big part of that, is documenting the source of where things come from (i.e. data). Another part of that, is being open about the places where a lot of my ideas come from (i.e. good resources of information).
Since I do my best not to make anything up (most of the time), the source material has to come from somewhere! So, on some regular basis, I want to share what I think are the some of the best places to get more information. These are resources I frequent on a regular basis for data, ideas, or general learning. I hope this is helpful for anyone who wants to learn more beyond what I can write or explain on my own. Or, for anyone who doesn’t believe me and wants to do their own analysis! Well, here you go:
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Established way back in 1884, the BLS produces many indicators that are closely watched by those in industry and by the broader public. Unemployment is a perfect example. That metric alone can make or break overall sentiment toward the market, economy, and political environment.
There are a lot of great articles on here written by industry practitioners. The focus leans toward risk management but, as someone in risk, I think the lessons are broad enough to be interesting to a wide range of readers. (Might just be me though!)
I feel like I had to put this here eventually. A lot of people (myself included) like to make fun of CNBC for being the junk food equivalent of financial news. Yet, those people (again, myself included) will also admit they read CNBC all the time. It’s important to read the popular stories around the market because those narratives do make their way up to decision makers in the business world.
I’ve referenced GDPNow several times before, so I figured I would make it part of the official helpful resource list. This is one of the most interesting nowcasting models I’ve seen and super useful. Whenever material economic information comes out, I typically end up checking this to see how it impacts the forecasted estimate.
This database has over 500,000 historical series! If there is an important economic indicator out there that is public information, it’s probably in FRED.
Economic data can be kind of slow, with monthly or quarterly releases. Betting markets however, run pretty much non stop. I usually check this site once a day as it has real-time odds for a lot of different predictions. It is especially useful for election odds.
I love the simple design of this page. There is so much useful long-term information on here. I’ve covered a few of these charts already but will probably end up writing about most of these time series eventually. Nice to have all that stuff in one place!
This site has even more charts and, more importantly, provides all the underlying data as well. Really good resource to quickly grab information. Chances are, you’ll find at least a few of these charts to be useful and interesting.
National Bureau of Economic Research
This is the official source for recession dates. These dates are chosen by the economist equivalent of the justice league. Basically, a bunch of super smart people decide when times are bad enough that we can call them a recession. They also have a lot of good data and research available on there too.
I check this website every weekday, multiple times a day. It offers a concise view of the market and prices. It also has some helpful stock screening tools.
This is such a good repository of information. Helpful search features allow users to easily look up a wide variety of data. Also, this website has amazing export functionality and intuitive data formatting.
This website has been a huge influence on my thinking. It quickly summarizes a huge number of broad trends in the market and economy into an easy-to-understand format. Eventually, I plan to write about a lot of indicators of my own that have borrowed ideas from their approach.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a little while, you have definitely seen this as the main source for most of the charts I have made thus far. This is where everything Gross Domestic Product lives, which is basically the most important number in all of economics.
This blog is insane. It’s like if Endless Metrics was written by someone intelligent. The articles in here are top notch. The only downside is they can be a bit academic and may not have the same charm, wit, and good looks as a certain newsletter written by yours truly.
The New York Fed has their own model for predicting GDP. It’s really well presented and provides an additional extra quarter of information of forecasted data as opposed to one quarter for GDPNow by the Atlanta Fed.
Hopefully you find these resources of as much value as I do. It certainly won’t be the last time I reference them.