I’m a pretty easy going guy. I never wanted to use this platform to vent or say anything hurtful about anyone or anything. It’s just not my style — Tradestreaming is a resource to help investors, journalists, and industry professionals make better informed decisions.
So, it’s got me a little ticked off that the venerable Barron’s has been taking some of my ideas and repurposing them — without referencing this site. I’m all for using my ideas and expanding on them. I don’t have a monopoly on ideas. Just tell your readers the source of your thoughts. I do it. C’mon.
This week’s Electronic Investor article entitled “Here Come the Third-Party Apps” is a direct reference to my July 6th piece, “Inching towards an investing app store“.
For most of us, this “open” collection of obscure programming utensils and standards—including, for example, a programmers’ tool kit with the memorable name SDK, or files tagged with the extension .XML—will be close to meaningless. But you may already be using some kind of trading app or plug-in that customizes your connection to E*Trade, and there’s no question that, with the proliferation of gadgets and third-party Websites, more such customizing and control programs are on the way. Like other online investment outfits, E*Trade doesn’t want to restrict its customers’ interface and functionality options to its in-house offerings.
The theme of brokerage platforms morphing into exchanges where 3rd party application developers can reach investors has been a common there here and on my other blog, New Rules of Investing.
Starting in July 2008 (on New Rules of Investing) and continuing a year later (with E*Trade further blurs the line between full-service and DIY investing), I’ve been writing about this trend– no one else really has. I’ve even included a section on it in the last chapter, Future of Finance, in my new book, Tradestream your Way to Profits.
Again, I have no problem riffing off my ideas. That’s why I write: to engender some thinking and discussion. Just link back. Listening, Barron’s?