Mutual Funds and Strategic Sample Blending — Not as Different as You’d Think

What does online sample have to do with mutual funds? A lot more than you might think! This is true specifically when it comes to strategic sample blending. Mutual funds allow you to invest in a diversified way. This means that instead of putting all your eggs in one basket by investing all your money into one or two companies (which can be super risky), you’re spreading your money across many different investments that are picked and managed in an intentional and controlled manner. Strategic sample blending is similar; it’s blending three or more sample providers but the selection and blending of the selected providers is done in an intentional and controlled manner. By strategically selecting providers and managing their allocation, you increase overall feasibility while avoiding “top-up” situations and panel bias, both of which can skew your data.

The similarities don’t end there, though. Check out some of the features mutual funds and strategic sample blending have in common:

1. Expert Picks

Mutual funds and strategic sample blends are both based on expert picks. With mutual funds, you want to have complementary assets that reduce risk and diversify your investments. For example, you might not want to invest too much in oil or gas. There is a similar approach in strategic sample blending. Panels are specifically selected to complement one another while reducing risk and bias in your research. In this instance, you wouldn’t want to have too much sample from panels that are too alike otherwise your data and results may become biased.

2. Risk Management

We’ve already touched on how mutual funds and strategic sample blending can reduce risk. However, it’s how they reduce risk that makes them so similar. Both are managing risk to achieve a goal. In strategic sample blending, relying too heavily on one panel not only introduces bias to your study, but is also dangerous. If something happens to that sample source (acquisition, bankruptcy, etc.) your study is ruined, and the data is useless with no way to replicate the study. The same is true with mutual funds. If fund managers invest too much money in one sector, the fund can become too reliant and less diversified which is risky. This leads to our final point.

3. Maintenance Over Time

Remember how we said that thing about something happening to your sample source? Strategic sample blending can make it so that you don’t have to worry about those things that happen all the time in our fast-paced industry. Both mutual funds and strategic sample blends aren’t entirely changed when things like this happen. Rather, they have micro adjustments to maintain them. For instance, if one company or one panel isn’t performing, they can be replaced with a like one with little to no impact on the overall blend. In this way, they make investing or researching much less volatile.

Investing your money can be risky—you want to make sure you work with professionals you can trust and that their strategy will do what’s best for your money. The same is true for your online quantitative research! Strategic sample blending is the best practice to ensure you get data you can trust. Learn more about strategic sample blending here. We’d be happy to chat with you face-to-face too!