Well, this should give Forbes—known for their annual "rich lists"—a run for their money.
Last night, Bloomberg released the "Bloomberg Billionaires Index," the first daily global ranking of the richest people in the world as part of their coverage of wealth.
The index is available here, and its most noticeable characteristic is that it is built to change daily depending on stock fluctuations and economic/company news. From the methodology—
The index is a dynamic measure of the world’s wealthy based on changes in markets, the economy and Bloomberg reporting. Each net-worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. New York time. Stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price. All numbers are in U.S. dollars at current exchange rates.
This could mean trouble for Forbes, which is known for publishing lists detailing various types of rich individuals. The magazine's annual billionaire's list usually drops in March, though it seems like for 2012 Bloomberg has beaten them to the punch. The 2011 list is available on the Forbes site right now.
For today, the 3 list toppers on Bloomberg's Index actually match the top 3 in Forbes' 2011 list of the world's billionaires—starting with Mexican business mogul Carlos Slim Helu, followed by American tech giant Bill Gates and investment guru Warren Buffett.
We'll have more comparisons of the richest kids on the block up later today.
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