Digital and Social Media - The New Bloomberg Terminal

How Does Social Media Impact Trading?


By Rodger Nachman
January 20, 2011

Seeking Alpha
http://www.seekingalpha.com/

The impact of social media on the stock market over the past few years has been nothing short of revolutionary.

Led by applications built off Twitter and Facebook traders and investors are getting access to information that can change their decisions in a split second, where before you had to wait for mainstream media or channel checking to come back with their findings.

People are sharing much more information now than in the past, which for a trader or or an investor, is the lifeblood of this industry. Low cost access to information and content.

Blogging, tweeting and companies like StockTwits, which aggregates tweets based off ticker symbols, have truly become the new Bloomberg terminal.

As technology continues to get better, speed and access to information gets cheaper and more accessible, and social media sites allow people to have a one stop shop for what they want to use it for.

Whether it be a long term hold on UPS (ups), or a shorrt term trade in Freeport McMoran (fcx), Traders have embraced social media as a way to speak with other traders, as well as bounce ideas off them.

No longer will major investment banks and the big boys have all the information. Sure, they will have more access to information, as they have the means to pay for it, but as time goes on, and more people embrace social media as a way to exchange information instead of just telling us what you had for dinner, trading and more importantly, Wall Street, will never be the same again.

Adding the "Wisdom of Main Street" to the Investment Process

"Investing has a lot to do with common sense and personal observations. The man on the street frequently knows far more about the state of the economy than politicians, university professors and financial analysts who seldom travel, or if they do , only from one first class hotel to another first class hotel and from one golf course to another. The pulse and vibrancy of an economy is, however, nowhere more visible than in a country's entertainment venues such as bars, restaurants, nightclubs and shopping centres."

Dr Marc Farber
GloomBoomDoom.com

The Internet of Things