Methods and systems for using multiple data sets to analyze performance metrics of targeted companies

Abstract

New and improved methods and systems for modeling the performance of selected company metrics. Multiple, non-traditional sets of objective data along with mathematical analytical techniques are used to provide transparency and visibility into company performance relating to the particular metrics. Company inflection points and changes in strategy may be identified. The performance of a company and/or the performance of a selected industry or industry sector may be analyzed.

1 - 29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . A method for preparing a neural network to analyze a performance metric of a selected company, comprising:
 identifying a first data source having a first set of non-fundamental data that is related to the performance metric of the selected company;   mapping unstructured or semi-structured data from the first data source, collected in human readable formats, into structured machine readable formats in a database as a first data set;   identifying one or more additional data sources, each of the one or more additional data sources has an additional set of non-fundamental data different from the first set of data and that is related to the performance metric of the selected company;   mapping unstructured or semi-structured data from one or more additional data sources, collected in human readable formats, into structured machine readable formats in the database as one or more additional sets of data;   combining the first set of data with the one or more additional sets of data in a combined data set;   applying a neural network analysis to the combined data set to develop a model of the performance metric; and   validating said model of the performance metric against the actual performance of the selected company.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein at least one of the first data set and the one or more additional sets of data comprise human readable data from a publicly accessible Internet web site. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising a step of deep searching publicly available Internet web sites to collect data for at least one of the first data set and the one or more additional data sets. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising validating each of the first set of data and the one or more additional sets of data by cleaning and filtering the data to remove errors and/or incomplete data entries and/or other data entries that can be determined to be inappropriate in their content. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 31 , further comprising validating each of the first set of data and the one or more additional sets of data by cleaning and filtering the data to remove errors and/or incomplete data entries and/or other data entries that can be determined to be inappropriate in their content. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 32 , further comprising validating each of the first set of data and the one or more additional sets of data by cleaning and filtering the data to remove errors and/or incomplete data entries and/or other data entries that can be determined to be inappropriate in their content.