Roadmap | Summer 2025

Research is a practiced craft. Thoughtful exploration and informed composition require more time and effort than a cursory internet search or forgettable chatbot prompt. The return is subtle but no less important: distilled context and analysis from a reliable and accountable source. Planning, application, and refinement are integral to this process. The same can be said for building a business.

27 JUN 2025

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I started Datum Research with an admittedly ambitious goal: credibly informing a broader audience about important narratives shaping our country and world. My background in macroeconomics and experience on the trading floor and in rates strategy also exposed me to critical geopolitical undercurrents. Technological shifts have not only affected our professions and industries, they have fundamentally altered how we perceive events and interact with each other. I am interested in where and how these themes come together as well as how such systems operate on their own.

If analysis is a structure, context is its foundation. In a world beset by superficial and unreliable information, finding and appraising truth to draw inference requires work and a degree of tacit agreement. Research may be systematic, but it also is a dialogue between an author and an audience. We ought to establish some common understanding so that our discussions and debates are fruitful.

I am practiced in assessing and conveying essential context to markets professionals who prioritize facts and frameworks over opinions and conjecture. I led research colleagues from around the world in authoring and producing a flagship daily commentary covering interest rates, foreign exchange, and emerging markets at one of the world's preeminent investment banks. I am trained to contextualize disparate information and relay narratives with little time and considerable resources at risk.

Everyone should be able to access this kind of intelligence. I cannot offer completely unbiased assessments - no one can. But my goal is to try. Our lens shapes the information available to us and colors our recognition of evolving patterns. Subjective as they may be, unique vantage points are useful and something that current AI models fundamentally lack. The best I can do is bring my knowledge and experience to bear.

More than offering professional expertise, I will try to be transparent about the facts and assumptions I rely upon and how confident I am in stated views. I also believe part of informing others is sharing my process. Even if we disagree, I hope that carefully vetted context or a particular approach will be useful in coming to your own conclusions about our changing world.

That's all well and good... but where's the beef? I have spent two years planning and building the company's infrastructure and research apparatus. Social media and marketing development are underway. Now is the time to produce. Datum Research needs to start somewhere, and I plan to begin with what I am most familiar with: macro commentary and the Federal Reserve.

While I will continue to write about the Fed given their central importance to global markets, my principal goal this Summer will be to get the daily Digest right. More in-depth research and analysis will follow in the Fall. I want to convey important developments and narratives that matter to markets - but affect all of us - as objectively as I can. I will offer my professional perspective and observations as appropriate while surveying key macroeconomic, geopolitical, and technological themes.

In five minutes with the Digest, you should be more informed and prepared having read distilled markets intelligence curated by an experienced Wall Street strategist. If you are not... I need to know and communicate better. It will cost you less than a dollar, and in some cases only your time. Any and all feedback is encouraged!

Stay tuned for a resumption of daily Digest commentary and the debut of the weekly Outlook beginning next week, along with a handful of Fed analyses. Longer-form publications are on the way. In the meantime, you can read several months' worth of preliminary work on the website for free.

Note that I take privacy very seriously. I collect as little information about you as possible and do not incorporate adware or otherwise sell your data and usage. You only need a valid email address to sign up for a free account.

I can only produce Datum Research with community donations and paid membership. If you care about diligent research and want to help a small business hit the ground running, I would appreciate and welcome your support. If you have ideas about how we might work together, please send them my way. Together, a humble starting point can evolve into something greater!

Good luck,

Eddie von der Schmidt

Datum Research