Interesting post by SellPuts at Hedge Accordingly about the impact of social investing. Investors have seen an onslaught of new financial startups, research platforms, and tools to share all this.
But, nothing tries new investing tools and strategies like big movements drops in the stock market.
The article discusses the radical impact of social investing on retail investors, using an car metaphor (beware, money quote):
That being said lets get back to my part I analogy of the Ferrari…. Since about April of 2008 the twitterverse has handed a Ford focus driver (the average investor/trader) the keys to a Ferrari and were told to floor it and to not worry about that paddle shift F1 gearbox (direct market access coupled with privileged information) just “learn as you go’. Some drivers (armchair investors) might really grasp the wheel and drive off into the sunset while others might get themselves into trouble they could have never EVER imagined before.
Tools exceed learning curve
Sites like Yahoo Finance (democratization of financial data/news) have given way to Seeking Alpha (provider of opinion) and Stock Twits (real time trading activity). Investors have full blown access to the collective Tradestream. But with this power, doesn't come knowledge. As the Ferrari metaphor describes above, the result is that individual investors have access to things we could only dream of years ago. Trading occurs in unison, investors get burned. More than anything, I sense an aimlessness or lack of focus. In spite of the fact that investors have unbridled research power just a click away, we're drifting, piggybacking each other, the same ideas and when fear rears its head (like last week), we all ran for the door. We don't know yet how to harness these tools.Enter Tradestreaming
Until now. That's what Tradestreaming is all about -- learning directly from experts how to use these tools, how to employ specific investment strategies. If I want to learn about- investing in mining companies, I want to go to Dr Victor Rudenno, who literally wrote the handbook on mining valuation
- an overall investment philosophy, I want to spend major cranial time with Jonathan Clements, who wrote the personal finance column at the WSJ forever
- the role of equity analyst and the career trajectory of a professional investor, I'm going to hang out with James Valentine, whose work is precious for the business of stock research
- investment models beyond today's stock market, I'm going to buy Amy Cortese a coffee and try to download everything she's learned researching local investments
- how to effectively employ a quantitative strategy using second generation screening tools, I want to learn from Lenny at Screener.co (coming soon)
- investing in taxi medallions, an asset that's gone up on average of 16% for decades, I want to learn from someone who's done it and reaped profits from decades