More Info, More Problems

It is often assumed that there is a positive, linear relationship between information and market efficiency. It stands to reason, at least to a point, that the more publicly available information we have about a security, the greater our ability to accurately price that security. But is it possible that too much information can be as bad for efficiency as too little? As reported in Scientific American, the amount of data that we produce doubles each year. To put it more concretely, in 2016, humankind produced as much data is in the entire history of the species through 2015. The publication’s best estimate for the future of data is that in the next decade there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 for every man, woman and child on Earth. At this point, the amount of data that we produce will double every 12 hours. We are a culture in love with data and tend to take a “more is better” approach when it comes to measuring and reporting on every part of our world. But the glut of information flooding our lives has real consequences, many of them negative.