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11 reasons why 2011 was an outstanding year for investors

2011 has been one of the best years on record for investors.

That’s right — you heard me.  One of the best years for investors.

I’m not talking about the S&P500 which is still down about 3% for the year.  The jury’s still out whether the year will end up in the green or red for investors.

But performance is NOT what I’m talking about.

2011 has been a great year for investors in other ways.  Individual investors have never had so much choice, low-cost investment options.  This year was a break-through for investors with new investing and research platforms mushrooming up around us as we slept.

We’ve never seen such a real move of the financial industry to move to the same side of the investing table.

Investors haven’t seen content — good content — written by women for women.  Data and apps are changing the way we research and invest — investing has become a collaborative process.

The great thing is that I was writing about all these trends in 2010 when I published Tradestreaming.

Now they’re a reality.

So without further-ado (and as the New Year rapidly approaches), let me get to my 11 reasons why 2011 was an awesome year for investing.
Continue reading “11 reasons why 2011 was an outstanding year for investors”

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Tradestreaming Cascade: The News You Need To Know (Week Of October 23, 2011)

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Every week, I send out an email (free) to my subscribers summarizing the must-see events of the past week. It’s everything about the intersection of technology, social media and investing.

Sign up in the sidebar, at the end of this post, or by going here.

You’ll get your 1st issue on Sunday.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Investment Products

Online banking keeps customers on hook for fees (NYT)
October 16, 2011

Big banks are struggling and their taking it out on their customers.  How long will the currently banked continue to put up with this?  BankSimple +1.

Social Media, Technology and Investing

The optimal software free trial strategy (SSRN)
Posted October 4, 2011

Lots of new investment startups and newsletters employ a free trial strategy to increase paid conversions.  Do you go full features for X days or limited features forever?  Here’s the optimal strategy.

The fear index based on social media sentiment looks bullish (MarketPsych)

Research firm MarketPsych has been profiled on Tradestreaming (go here).  Looking at a variety of investor sentiment from thousands of sources, MarketPsych thinks the current market looks bullish.

New app is awesome showcase of stock market data and visualizations (Xignite)
Posted October 14, 2011

StockTouch is a new iOS app that uses a market heat map-type display of breaking stock market movements.  New visualizations like StockTouch promise investors a new way to look at market data/info to aid decision making.

Investment Strategies and Research

Continue reading “Tradestreaming Cascade: The News You Need To Know (Week Of October 23, 2011)”

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Tradestreaming users like new format of my newsletter (do you?)

If you haven’t noticed recent changes (or are not yet subscribed) to my weekly newsletter (Sundays), it appears that some recent tweaks to the format are being well received by the rest of us.

The point of my weekly email is to help you quickly get a feel for all the cutting edge news and analysis impacting today’s serious investor.

I’ve begun adding more links/news and categories including:

  • investment products
  • social media, technology and investing
  • investment strategies and research
  • the financial advisory business
  • investor behavior

You can see an example here and subscribe here.

By the way, I didn’t just randomly pick the new categories above — I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how investors learn to become better and how this information breaks down into categorization.

The changes have resulted in a slightly higher open rate (how many people are opening my weekly message) and and almost double the numbers of clicks on links. I take that as a good thing.

 

Are you reading my weekly Tradestreaming newsletter? What do you think — do you like the changes?

What would you like to see more of from me?  Let me know in the comments below.

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Tradestreaming Cascade: The News You Need To Know (Week Of October 8, 2011)

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Every week, I send out an email (free) to my subscribers summarizing the must-see events of the past week. It’s everything about the intersection of technology, social media and investing.

Sign up in the sidebar, at the end of this post, or by going here.

You’ll get your 1st issue on Sunday.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Investment Products

Evaluating Vanguard’s new LifeStrategy Funds (Oblivious Investor)
Posted October 5, 2011

Taking a slightly different tack with their pre-packaged retirement funds, Mike Piper seems to like the lower pricing and inclusion of international in the index firm’s fixed allocation funds.

Social Media, Technology and Investing

How to aggregate news like a pro (SmartBlog on Media)
Posted September 30, 2011

I wish I were Matt Drudge.  But I’m not.  This article provides concrete advice for those publisher looking to provide value by aggregating content — something Tradestreaming friend Meb Faber requested in his call for curated research offerings.

The Power of Facebook and the Launch of Personal Capital (AdvisorGo)
Posted Oct 5, 2011

Weekly AdvisorGo podcast (I’m a co-host) looks into how Facebook changes affect advisors using Facebook and the recent launch of a startup with big plans for online delivery of financial services.

Continue reading “Tradestreaming Cascade: The News You Need To Know (Week Of October 8, 2011)”

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Stock Twits, Estimize, and the future of social investing – with Leigh Drogen

Leigh Drogen played an integral role in StockTwits‘ success. Now, he’s on to his own startup, Estimize, which takes aim at improving financial estimates with a decidedly social approach.

Drogen shares his own experience and history as an investor and now entrepreneur as he’s one of the most vocal proponents of using a mix of social media communications to enhance the investing process.

He’ll share his vision of social investing and how Estimize should help investors become more accurate.
Continue reading “Stock Twits, Estimize, and the future of social investing – with Leigh Drogen”

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Tradestreaming in the European Financial Review

As Tradestreaming — and our methodology of learning from investing experts — is gaining momentum, other periodicals are taking notice.

I appeared in this quarter’s print edition of the European Financial Review. I essentially wrote about Tradestreaming — how investors are taking advantage of the new media and research tools that social media is enabling.

As regular readers would recognize, I wrote about 3 strategies that investors can employ today to begin making better investment decisions (Ride the Long Tail, Piggyback the Pros, Commune with Experts)

I also included a paragraph about what I think the future has in store for investors: Continue reading “Tradestreaming in the European Financial Review”

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Insight into the Twitter hedge fund

This is interesting.  Here’s an interview with Paul Hawtin, founder of Derwent Capital Markets (the Twitter hedge fund).

the twitter hedge fundI find this compelling because it’s one of the first hedge funds that’s designed (so publicly, at least) to trade on changes in social media sentiment.

According to MoneyScience, you’ll learn:

  • How the Twitter hedge funds’s signals are computer
  • Operational set up and infrastructure of Derwent
  • Trade generation
  • The “Michael Jackson” Test: Is the Twitter hedge fund an automated black box?
  • Risk Management
  • Will large scale analysis of social media be part of quant trading and investing from now on?
  • Who is invested in the Twitter hedge fund?
  • Capacity, Target return

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Radical social investing needs parallel educational framework

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): Continue reading “Radical social investing needs parallel educational framework”

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Making better investment decisions with social media [interview]

Tradestreaming is all about plugging into social media to help investors make better decisions.

I recently appeared (radio) on News@7 to talk about my book (Tradestream your Way to Profits).

We also had the opportunity to talk about real-life examples how investors are turning to new online tools to aid them in the investing process, some new-ish Internet IPOs and current trends on Internet usage. Continue reading “Making better investment decisions with social media [interview]”

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Tradestreaming Cascade for the Week ending May 1, 2011

A new addition to Tradestreaming, the Tradestreaming Cascade is a highlight reel of some of the past week’s most interesting information. Much of this comes from my Twitter feed, @newrulesinvest

Research update: Activist Investing (The Activist Investor): More research into the value extracted by activist investors — this time looking at shareholder proposals and voting.

The art of investing in today’s economy (Tradestreaming): New podcast with the former personal finance columnist for the WSJ, Jonathan Clements.

Favorite Boutique Asset Managers Launch New Funds (Morningstar): Ariel, Fairholme, Royce, FMI among the firms launching new mutual funds with interesting strategies.

May 3rd poorest performing month in pre-election years (Stock Trader’s Alamanac): A hypothetical $10k investment in the DJIA for November-April would have compounded to over $500k (1986 – present) while May-October would have resulted in a $379 loss.

Sectorology: How the financial sector stacks up against other industries (Random Roger): Interesting view on short-term, long-term investing in financial stocks.

The predictive power of the combo of Morningstar stars, expenses, investor returns, manager records and active share (Morningstar): More Morningstar research on how best to use their information for profitable investing.

Online brokerage no threat to advisors? Yeah, and I’m a meat-eating rabbit (New Rules of Investing): Redefining the role of brokerage and advice in the age of social media.