10K

I recently reached 10,000 followers on StockTwits.  That's great, but we know it's mostly just because somebody put me on a list or two.  So really, thanks to whoever that is ;-)

I just want to say thanks for all the follows, laughs and generously shared insights over the years.  Alas, that's not the point of the post.

I've been on stocktwits way too damn long, so I figured I'd share a few things I've learned about social media and particularly stocktwits and twitter over the years:

• Be nice and show respect.  
• Mis-communication is guaranteed.  
• The twitter-sphere is an odd way to get a first impression of somebody.
• Don't get caught up in the crowd.  You have to think for yourself.
• There is an insane amount of emotion on twitter streams when markets are open.  Do what you have to to avoid it.  It's hard to completely filter out of your mind.  Nobody is doing this intentionally, it's just the nature of the beast.  
• If you're bringing your emotion into your stream you're sucking value out of it.
• Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. - Abraham Lincoln.
• Everybody is pushing an agenda and that's fine.
• Want people to scratch your back?  Scratch some backs yourself.

Beware of bullshit

There is so much information offered as advice in the twitter-sphere and a lot of it is just bullshit.  This is another nature of the beast problem.  As we're all just out there working our thoughts out in various points in our learning curves, we think we hit on something so we throw the hypothesis out there to see if it works.  No harm, no foul - it is what it is.

All of this free information doesn't mean you don't need guidance

I used to think since there was a vast amount of data out there for free, why would you need to pay for any trading services?  To this day, I've not subscribed to a trading service and I admit that's probably a mistake.  It's a long process putting all of the pieces together, and having guidance from seasoned traders can definitely help smooth out the learning curve.

Finally ...

Stocktwits shared their sentiment data by hours of the day

My immediate take-away from this data

Judging by the dips at 9 AM and 4 PM, trolls come out when news comes out and put their negative spin on everything without properly vetting the data.  Ignore them!

Trade 'em well!  
- Aaron