Talking Stocks

I was reading MG Siegler’s post on Twittter’s organizational changes this morning and came across this comment:

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what people talk about when the elections are over. Women’s fashion?

Originally posted as a comment by MG Siegler on VentureBeat using Disqus.

I replied, "stocks" and linked to Stocktwits.

Stocktwits is the invention of my friends Howard Lindzon and Soren Macbeth. I am not an investor but I do have a vested interest in its success, because like many other things, it was built on top of Twitter and adds value to Twitter. In fact it even looks a bit like Twitter:

Stocktwits

Stocktwits asks a slightly different question than Twitter, it wants to know "What are you trading". And the key is to put a $ in front of the ticker, like I did with $goog in my tweet in that screen shot.

Stocktwits takes care of the rest. If you like stocks and like to talk about them all day long, then Stocktwits and Twitter are the thing for you. Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Comments (Archived):

  1. Gonzalo Arzuaga

    StockTwits is a powerful idea. I think it clearly shows the need of a solution to “create your own microblogging community”, something like what Ning is to social networking, but to microblogging.

    1. NinoT

      Agreed. Is there anything like that out there? i could use something like that for my web site

  2. infoarbitrage

    fred, clearly i agree. soren and howard have struck a chord with those who value real-time insight and commentary in a focused domain, specifically stocks. and the lightweight approach they’ve taken just highlights the power of delivering vertical value to a horizontal community, where both constituencies share a common passion: the desire to consume and share real-time information. thanks also for sharing your insights with the stocktwits team. as one of those involved with the project, i know the value you bring to soren and howard’s thought process is invaluable.

  3. marketfolly

    yup agree. been using it since the beginning and can only see more and more people jumping in

  4. Ilan

    I LOVE this idea, but what about the legal implications in the long term of such a service? Insider dealings et al?

    1. howardlindzon

      you mean like CNBC and Wall Street Journal….please…

  5. vishalsood

    I really liked stocktwits .. the earlier look-n-feel was not that great but the new site really rocks .. I think with time as more users join in this will be a great tool to get all relevant informatio. It would beat the forums concepts on most financial sites hands-down … i really like the porfolio features and the way it filters down to just relvant stocks based on your portfolio .. thanks for sharing Fred and good work Howard / SorenI would love to see some analysts / financial sites publishing reports etc on twitter and then they show up on stocktwits.

    1. howardlindzon

      people just need to add links and use url shortneres. as with any service the early contributors and adopters will give give give and everyone will catch on

      1. vishalsood

        Yeap, thats how they would do it. I was hoping they actually do it?

        1. howard lindzon

          we cretaed a list of recommended tweeters that make a habit of doing that. check them out on the site

          1. vishalsood

            thanks … I did not notice that earlier .. looks good 🙂

  6. G Mark Borisov

    Great idea! Love the real time nature of it and good, to the point comments. We do kind of similar thing for financial message boards – http://www.boardcentral.com – providing a vertical search engine and aggregating all the statistical information. Would love to partner with StockTwits!

  7. jeremystein

    ive always been curious what % of twitter is finance talk.i like to think of twitter as a new kind of people powered radio. theres tons of different channels– you just need to find the one you like listening to. am i only hearing more finance chatter because i subscribe to the “cnbc” channel, or is it playing a more important role with twitter?

    1. fredwilson

      I think more people are talking about stocks these days because stocks are interesting (and dangerous)

  8. Nick

    Great blog post, it’s funny I just found out about this site myself. I’ve attached the link, hope it does well- it’s an idea that’s very much in touch with young traders, and simple enough that older ones shouldn’t have much trouble catching on to it as well.

      1. howard lindzon

        Nick – you totally get it. thanks

        1. Tom Hughes

          It also helped me figure out “why twitter?” which I’d been struggling with (he sheepishly admits).

          1. fredwilson

            That makes me day. Twitter has to make this easier and more obvious

  9. Soren Macbeth

    Thanks for the love Fred 🙂 Anyone that followed your $GOOG buy on StockTwits last week would be sitting on some extra green right now.

  10. Wallen's

    Seems a good idea for real time stock info outside of the small world of traders. I’m just wondering if there are implications on stock volatility or manipulation based on “rumours” spread via StockTwits?

  11. David Pakman

    I love it, Fred. And I think there are several different vertical media companies that can be built atop Twitter. Some additional tools are needed to enable this, and it begs the question about a Yahoo 1.0-like directory of information sources to which I can subscribe (“follow”).

    1. fredwilson

      Do you know howard david? If not, you should meet him

  12. discwrangler50

    I am looking for venture capital for my new product invention, the Disc Wrangler. It is a great idea that allows the user to pisk up their discs without having to touch them. So no damaged disc anymore by using the Disc Wrangler, which is patent pending and trade mark registers. So all we need is the big money to lauch our product. But we are located in the great city of FLint, Michigan, if you have heard of it, where this product can be built and employee thousand of people in the high tech industry.