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Myb News · Nov 8, 2026

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*Wall Street can use your phone's location to spot business trends.* Some apps collect location data. Data companies package those movements without people's names and sell the patterns to investment funds. *How does that make money?* In 2018, data firm Thasos counted phone activity inside Tesla's California factory. Its data suggested overnight staffing grew about *30% from June to October*. Imagine seeing 100 workers' phones at night, then 130. That could mean more people working and more cars being built. The 30% was a measure based on phone activity, *not a 30% rise in sales or profit*. Investors use clues like this to judge how a business is doing before its official results. It's an educated guess, not proof or guaranteed profit. Tesla reported a surprise profit that October, and its shares rose about *9% the next day*. That doesn't prove the location data predicted the result, but it shows why investors want an early clue. And they're paying for it: hedge funds and asset managers spent an estimated *$2.8 billion on alternative data in 2025*, up *17%*, according to Neudata. That includes location patterns and other nontraditional information.

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