> I'm not sure there's much in it when it comes to gauging wider market trends.
It's not about Apple customers AND Goldman Sachs customers, it's about consumer trends. Having access to millions of purchases as they happen is useful unto itself when it comes to market trends. In this day and age effectively anyone can get HFT hardware / software, but having that pipe of data is a real moat that your average shop cannot compete with.
I think you misunderstand what I'm saying. Goldman would be getting some data from Apple customers who were also using this Goldman issued credit card - hence "intersection".
Is that a diverse enough customer segment to draw any wider conclusions beyond this particular group of people? It seems pretty narrow to me, but perhaps you are right that the data has some value regardless.
It's not about Apple customers AND Goldman Sachs customers, it's about consumer trends. Having access to millions of purchases as they happen is useful unto itself when it comes to market trends. In this day and age effectively anyone can get HFT hardware / software, but having that pipe of data is a real moat that your average shop cannot compete with.