Crowdsourcing vs. Piggybacking: An ongoing debate

Just returned from a mini-tour for Tradestreaming which ended with an editorial of mine appearing on CNNMoney. CNN's editors thought the tension between investing alongside guru investors (what I call, piggybacking) and following the crowd (which devalues individual expertise) was worth exploring (in 800 words or less).  It was a great topic and one that I didn't give enough verbiage to in the book. Part of this was laziness, part of it was in effort to keep the text short, and part of it was that crowdsourcing investment ideas is still really in its infancy.  While we can essentially clone hedge fund portfolios (with great tools like AlphaClone or great resources like MarketFolly), crowdsourcing tools are still finding their footing (I like Piqqem). Here's the crux of the matter:

So while it's premature to say whether crowdsourcing can act as a standalone strategy, it may make sense for investors to tap the wisdom of the masses in addition to the other strategies they use to generate investment ideas. The Internet and social media are truly changing the way we acquire information, research investments, and manage our portfolios. The playing field is more level than it's ever been, and that's a good thing. Happy tradestreaming.

You can read the whole article on CNNMoney , Follow the smart money -- and the crowd Photo courtesy of futureshape