In the Red Corner, we have StockTwits…and In the Blue Corner, Twitter!
Yeah, I know that might be taking it a little far, but all the press over the last week or so
seems to be positioning this as the fight of the year in social media. The new twitter cashtag $ is all the buzz, when in reality it is old news. Maybe it is because it is hitting close to home in our community this time as I am a fairly avid StockTwits user. Am I bias? Certainly, but that bias has been built over the last year and has put down a pretty solid foundation to this point. I made the point in my Buck Naked post that I posted on StockTwits and ported to Twitter which is exactly how I do it. Twitter is a byproduct, not a solution. I thought it would be worth taking a minute to give a few points why…
Focused
First thing that must be mentioned is the focus of StockTwits for those who really enjoy the markets. The theme behind it and house rules help cultivate a community of folks who are constantly looking for ways to work the market in any environment. This idea generation offers new ways to look at markets and events and build a game plan based on a constantly evolving discussion. I actually joined Twitter first as most do, but quickly realized it was too hard to find what I was looking for and StockTwits simplified my search.
Community
I mentioned community above, but believe this deserves its own discussion. Before I joined the community, I rarely talked with any other traders except at bi-monthly MTA meetings. Again, Twitter was no help here, but once I joined StockTwits, I was quickly opened up to many great analysts almost all of which have a traders focus giving an extra edge to the information. In fact, I met some of the best friends I have made in years in a few months of sharing ideas. Now, after just a year, those relationships have developed into daily open lines of communication on ideas and strategies. To think…just two years ago, I would go 2 months without talking with anyone outside our firm and clients about the markets.
The Team
This is not supposed to be a puff piece, so I won’t belabor all the details, but the StockTwits team puts them way ahead. I have had the pleasure to have numerous online dealings with many of them, and a few personal dealings as well. All of which have been enjoyable and informative. This team is constantly trying to improve the experience with things like cashtags, specific streams, trending tickers, the heatmap, and the list goes on. All of this focused on building a better way for the community to cultivate ideas of how to make money in the markets.
The Platform
The platform of the two sites are rooted in the same ideas, but my experience so far is the more focused StockTwits platform provides the data and info I am looking for with much better execution. For one, Twitter seems to hog resources and lock up my browser too often. It is slow and clunky at high traffic times of day which is frustrating. My experience is StockTwits is much lighter and flows much better with very rare interruptions. When those interruptions do occur, you know The Team is working to get it fixed right now! I am sure basic traffic plays a role in this functionality, but that lower traffic albeit growing quickly not only helps the platform, but also reduces the noise a good bit. Remember, the goal above of staying focused.
There are many differing opinions on this one, but these are my personal experiences on which the foundation is resting. Twitter is a great place for entertainment, but for business and ideas, it can’t hold up to the one two punches that StockTwits continues to land. This week just showed StockTwits blows are making enough of a difference for Twitter to try and copy its moves. Great job guys. Keep up the good work!
