"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth" - Mike Tyson

November 06, 2015

20K

I recently reached 20,000 followers on StockTwits.  Every 10K I update and re-share this list of lessons and things I've learned about social media

I also want to say thanks for all the laughs, generously shared insights and great conversation over the years.  I was glad to finally meet some of you at Stocktoberfest this year!


Social Media Truths and Commandments
  • Be nice and show respect.  
  • Mis-communication is guaranteed.  Don't be judgmental. 
  • The twitter-sphere is an odd way to get a first impression of somebody.  
  • Group think is rampant.  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.  Manage your follows.  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.
  • The smartest folks on the stream are generally the quietest about their opinions.  They let their work and words speak for themselves.  
  • It's difficult to see that as many self-anointed experts create an illusion of knowledge by being very 'loud' and constantly cramming their opinions into the streams.
  • The best follows engage in constructive, thoughtful conversation and are open to being wrong.  
  • Everybody is pushing an agenda and that's fine.
  • I've tried to use follows as a marketing tool.  It's pointless.  And annoying.
  • 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.

Trade ideas are just ideas

So many people want to post trades on social media and make calls and be right.  Who cares.  What matters is the idea flow.  We're all different people with different trading styles.  There is no use in following someone into a trade and expecting them to get you out of a trade.  If they're consistently good at what they do, they wouldn't be posting it all real time for free.

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 subscribed to only one trading service.  Honestly, that was probably a mistake.  It's a VERY LONG process putting all of the pieces together, and having guidance from seasoned traders can definitely help smooth out the learning curve.

Build your network

There are so many smart people to follow in various parts of the finance industry (or in general).  All with different points of view.  It's easy to follow a bunch of people that think like you or trade like you do, but the best value is in building that diversified idea network.

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.  Just like the media.  Ignore them!


Trade 'em well!  
- Aaron

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All ideas shown on this blog represent the authors opinion based on the data available.