​Applying AI translation to Equity Research Reports

Equity research translation with AI

Equity research translation is a topic demanding plenty of discussion here at TranslateFX. In addition to our article regarding the top 3 challenges translating equity research, I hope to discuss the topic in more detail in this post.

In the past, equity research has primarily been drafted and read in English, the international language most often used in Finance. Due to a myriad of factors such as cost, time, compliance, capacity, and audience, research teams don't often translate their research into additional languages. Simply put, the demand and cost to supply didn't make sense less a few particular circumstances.

In recent years, the resurgence in AI machine translation, China's rise to power, and world getting flatter is changing how equity research teams and divisions think about their translation needs:

1) AI software is improving the accuracy of machine translation

2) Chinese investors with newly acquired capital are interested investing opportunities abroad

3) Global investors want to take part in the rise of China's vast and developing economy

4) Estimated 1.5 billions people speak English vs 1.3 billion people speak Chinese

There is a trend towards China opening up its financial markets to foreign institutions and allowing for full foreign ownership of foreign banks, insurance providers, and other financial services. This one change in the financial landscape has increased the need for financial translation between English and Chinese particularly.

Security & Compliance

One challenge for financial brokers and institutions to consider external translation vendors is security and compliance. Equity research in particular are sensitive documents affecting stock market prices and hold the risk of tampering and other illegal activities. This is a concern AI translation is perfectly positioned to resolve. AI translation bypasses some of these pivotal security and compliance issues because machine translation engines are simply just software -when setup properly, they are as secure as any other existing financial-grade software solution.

Efficiency is the Key

Time is of the essence in the financial markets. Being able to publish equity research soon after it is drafted and in multiple languages at the same time or in other languages within a short timeframe following the original version is the only option. This requirement made publishing in other languages much more difficult before, AI translation is great for this circumstance in that machines can translate with high accuracy in an instant, making it possible to do so more consistently and with ease. At TranslateFX, our customized machine translation engines for equity research reports are fine-tuned in a way such that the need for post-editing for the machine translated texts are minimal.

Particular Abbreviations, Terminology, and Names

Part of fine-tuning our AI machine translation models for equity research reports is making sure the names and terminologies used in the reports are translated appropriately. It is typical to find particular shorthands being used in equity research reports, e.g NI (net income), OP (operating margin), PP (percentage point). The fact is Google Translate and other generic machine translation engines are not able to translate such texts appropriately today because the context of equity reports is too specific for a generalized machine translation engines. Making sure particular company names and other keywords are translated accordingly improve translation accuracy resulting in less time spend in content review.

Reporting Workflow

Equity research drafting follows a specific workflow. The analyst may draft the report in one or more languages before handing it off to a translator to complete the translation(s). This is followed by review from a compliance analyst/editor and the research editor(s). Revisions require the document to be pushed back down the workflow chain for re-translation and further review. Such specific workflow requires appropriate software in addition to AI translation.

Integrating document management systems (DMS) with AI translation management systems (TMS) allows for equity research teams to really do their best work and not get bogged down on tedious workflow processes. Other important features in such workflow include tracking revision changes, automatically applying basic company profile (such as ticker information) to the headers of the reports at the time of publishing. These minute changes are necessary to optimize equity research teams to focus on what they are hired best to do: publishing their insight.