StockTwits reaction to Timmy G's plan

Cognitive dissonance at its finest?

The market reacted quite favorably to the U.S. Treasury’s so called ‘Toxic Asset Plan’ while many, including a large portion of the StockTwits community, think it will be the latest huge embarassing failure via Washington.  Consensus on the StockTwits feed seems to indicate they’ll take the bounce for what it’s worth.

We were first alerted to Timmy’s plan from one of our many StockTwits insomniacs:

aiki14 Mar. 23 at 1:32 AM

WSJ article on/interview with Geithner re: plan, just out http://bit.ly/10IRQe $$

And the reactions:

@Nostreetrader Mar. 23 at 8:20 AM

Cant say I remember Geithner ever moving the market in THIS direction at such a firing rate! $$

@milktrader Mar. 23 at 8:22 AM

I get real nervous about long action when the government is the catalyst. Call me skeptical $$

@Dasan Mar. 23 at 8:50 AM

Someone smart please explain to me how the same old “buy assets from dead banks” plan that the market hated under Paulson is now great? $$

@ex_wirehouse Mar. 23 at 9:13 AM

@agwarner thinking this is a thinly veiled way of cramming losses down taxpayers throats, success dubious $$

@MrUnexpectedly Mar. 23 at 9:19 AM

So investors are going to end the slump by buying the assets they ran from to create the slump? OH YEAH RALLY THAT!!! $$

@howardlindzon Mar. 23 at 9:26 AM

once again the world was healed on a sunday night by our govenment and the futures are up. colore me skeptical, but long. $$

@bluewaterpro Mar. 23 at 10:02 AM

Fighting the fed is a stilly strategy $FAS

@emini_trader Mar. 23 at 12:17 PM

excellent synopsis of Geithner’s plan: http://tinyurl.com/cuflf9 $$

StockTwits users all over it...again

The theme of the week, in market news as well as mainstream media, can be summed up in three letters: A-I-G.   The chatter was inescapable.  Six year olds were observed debating AIG’s payment of bonuses despite accepting hundreds of billions of federal bailout money.   The talking heads were quick to focus on this fact knowing it would enrage the ‘dumb masses’ and keep them tuned in.

As usual, the StockTwits universe was all over this and way ahead of the curve, focusing on the real issues: how it could affect their current investment positions and how they could profit off of it in the coming week.  StockTwits were quick to point out that the real story, and the real money, wasn’t AIG bonuses, but rather the firms who were counterparties to AIG: in particular Goldman Sachs.

A spattering of calls made very early in the week:

@Dasan Mar. 15 at 8:40 PM

$AIG sings: as expected, biggest beneficiary of taxpayer largess was Government Sachs $GS, and $MER, $UBS

@StockJockey Mar. 15 at 6:39 PM

@niubi $GS only got about $13 billion from 3 separate AIG facilities/bailouts - at least we know # http://bit.ly/cJCeF

@niubi Mar. 16 at 12:31 AM

bween TARP and $aig alone goldman $gs has taken in over $40B of taxpayer $$. not including FDIC backed bonds and Fed facilities. disgusting

@ryamada Mar. 16 at 3:54 AM

Will rethink $FAZ position in the AM. $GS got $13bn from AIG in q4, a good chunk of mkt cap loss of 38% ($29bn) since Sept 1.

@Blackhorse Mar. 16 at 6:40 AM

That means about 20% of $AIG’s bailout funds went to just 3 banks: $GS, SocGen, and DB.

abnormalreturns Mar. 16 at 12:14 PM

The Monday linkfest is up. $GS in the spotlight after $AIG collateral list released. http://bit.ly/21KU $$

@jaltucher Mar. 17 at 8:56 AM

@donahchoo A lot of the $AIG bailout was paid to banks who insured their exposure to $LEH. $AIG was vehicle to hand it to $GS, $MS, etc.

StockTwits Etiquette

Our intent on StockTwits is to add value and build community.

To do so we have learned that a few simple guidelines, if followed most of the time by the majority, will promote such intent.

Adding Value

When you tag a tweet with a $ for inclusion to the stream you will want it to add value for other members of our community.

If it does, then it’s right.  If it does not, then it is likely not the best.

The best stocktweets will relate to a specific asset, specific set up or trade you are making and subjects where you are knowledgeable.  It may be an opinion or new information.  It may be a great link (see below for more on linking). 

What To Leave Out

Tweets that do not have to do with markets should be left off the stream.

Shout outs for great trades are awesome when they reference specific calls and/or tweets by others but they are not as awesome when there is no reference made.

Extended discussions of politics should be left off the stream.  I get more complaints about this than anything else.  If the politics relates specifically to markets and adds value than it is ok.

One suggestion is to take things back channel by using an @reply without the $ or a dm (direct message) when discussions veer from adding market related value.

Vulgarity

Using vulgar language is not loved on StockTwits though we will usually put up with occasional usage. 

I have personally spent years on a trading desk and know that in the heat of the moment colorful language is natural. Nevertheless, we’ve learned from community feedback that some find it offensive which makes sense.

The one exception of course is If your tweet is really funny.  You can get away with a well placed expletive if the tweet is hilarious.  If not, then not so much.

Linking

Links are awesome on StockTwits when they go directly to an article, chart or some type of information that is of value.  They are not awesome when they go to a sign in page or to another link.

They are also not awesome when the implicit reasoning for tweeting is site promotion rather than adding value and frankly we view this as spam.

Pace

Its important to pace tweets such that one person does not stuff the stream with a series of numerous rapid fire tweets in succession.  You might have noticed that this occurs most often when a bot gets on the feed but it sometimes occurs when someone gets very excited and forgets that they are broadcasting to thousands of people simultaneously.

Respecting Fellow Members

This is the most important thing.  Please try to treat others how you would like to be treated.

Humility\Transparency

Simply participating in markets assures that we will be wrong often and the nature of StockTwits assures that what you tweet here will be public.

As such, it is critical not only to publicize your winners but to
follow up on your losers as well.

To my mind there is no better way to earn the respect of the community than by modeling how you handle red trades.

Market vs Non Market Hours

In general, there is a bit less demand to adhere to etiquette during non market hours.

***

Again, these guidelines are not set in stone.  They are, though, a road map for the benefit of everyone over the longer term as the community grows in number and richness of information.

@ppearlman

StockTwits is looking for a rockstar Flex developer

Want to join the StockTwits team? StockTwits is looking for a rockstar Flex developer.

To Apply:

1) Build a quick and dirty Flex application that uses the StockTwits XML or JSON API located at http://stocktwits.com/streams/all.xml and http://stocktwits.com/streams/all.json respectively. The application should check for new updates once a minute and display them similar to the streams on stocktwits.com

2) Package the flex project as a zip file and email it to soren at stocktwits dot com along with your name, where you’re located, a 140 character description of why you should get the job and your hourly rate.

This is a contact position with a possibility to transition into full-time. Good luck!

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 15, 2009

@gregormacdonald hosted the MacroTwits hour again this past Sunday.  As usual China, Oil, Gold and US Treasuries were the dominant themes.  Gregor’s biggest takeaway from the past week:

If you ask me, the Story of the Week came at the tail end. The Premier of China expressing open worry about Treasuries. $$

Transcript is broken into two parts; edited for size.

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 15, 2009 Part I

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 15, 2009 Part II

Don’t forget to stop by the MacroTwits hour this coming Sunday at 9pm; great way to prepare for the coming week.

@llboyd

StockTwits Brunch Transcript Sat Mar 14, 2009

Get some new trading ideas for the week and beyond in the latest StockTwits Brunch with @tickerville.  Edited for size.

StockTwits Brunch Saturday March 14th, 2009 Part I

StockTwits Brunch Saturday March 14th, 2009 Part II

StockTwits Brunch Saturday March 14th, 2009 Part III

Stop by every Saturday morning from 10-12 to talk charts with our boy @tickerville.

@llboyd

StockTwits Bull Bear Survey

Please respond to this survey by Monday 03/16 @ 930AM EST

StockTwits/LindzonPalooza In Effect

StockTwits/LindzonPalooza is three weeks away and we are gearing to party our faces off even as Rome burns.

In addition to sun, stocks, golf, food, and a Sun’s game, we are organizing an optional stock market and trading discussion with:

@upsidetrader @howardlindzon @AndySwan @alphatrends @ToddStottlemyre @sorenmacbeth @ppearlman

The estimated cost for room, food, suns game, and golf is $1,000.00; this does not include flight.

Where: Phoenix, AZ

When Friday April 3 evening - Sunday April 5 afternoon

RSVP: mcampise@lindzon.com

People are responsible for organizing their own flights and reserving their own room. We have negotiated a discounted rate at the Ritz Carlton for $159.00 a night. (Ritz Carlton 1-800-542-8680 ask for the Lindzonpalooza block)

Please join us!

How to Use the Five StockTwits Streams (Great for Newbies)

A week or so ago we published on our site a Help Page which we think does a pretty good job of helping folks optimize their experience on StockTwits.  One of the sections on that Help Page describes the five filters we have on StockTwits. 

I would like to take this blog post to go into more detail with regard to how I use the different filters throughout the day with the thought that this might be useful to others who want to make the most of the StockTwits experience.

The All Stream

The All stream can be accessed by choosing All on the drop down menu below the Tweet entry box on the StockTwits website.  You can also access it by pressing the $ button on TweetDeck.

I keep the All stream open most of the day as a column on TweetDeck and refer to it multiple times to get a feel for the market action.  It becomes active well before trading begins and I survey it early to find out what the futures are doing, what the big stories are, what trades traders are attending to and to get a feel for the mood of participants.

During the trading day, I use it similarly referring to it often.  I love to see specifically what trades traders are putting on and what their rationales might be.  This provides me with multiple trade set ups I would not have otherwise seen coming.

In the evenings, I use the All stream to catch up on linked news stories, blog posts and charts that users find of interest.

On the weekends, I use the All stream to follow and participate in and for StockTwits Brunch at 10AM EST on Saturdays and MacroTwits Hour at 9PM EST on Sunday Nights.

The Friends Stream

The Friends stream can be accessed by choosing Friends on the drop down menu below the Tweet entry box on the StockTwits website.  You can also access it by pressing the $ button on TweetDeck.

The Friends stream provides an autorefresh stream of only those you are following.  This helps to distill for you quickly the market information from those you have already explicitly decided are most interesting to you.

I refer to the Friends stream periodically throughout the day to get a beat on what the traders I follow most closely are focusing on.  This is a much slower stream but highly actionable on an almost daily basis.

The Portfolio Stream

The Portfolio stream can be accessed by choosing Friends on the drop down menu below the Tweet entry box on the StockTwits website.  You can also access it by pressing the $ button on TweetDeck.

I tend to access the Portfolio stream from directly from the StockTwits.com site because I actively change the stocks included on that list.  You can set your portfolio list by clicking on My Portfolio button at the top right of the StockTwits web page.

I use this stream to keep up with what StockTwits users are tweeting about the symbols I follow most closely including $SPY,$GLD, $USO and $QQQQ although I update this all the time when I am watching other symbols.  It constantly amazes me how often I find a great nugget of actionable information of this stream that I had missed elsewhere.

The Commentary Stream

The Commentary stream can be accessed by choosing Commentary on the drop down menu below the Tweet entry box on the StockTwits website.  You can also access it by pressing the $ button on TweetDeck.

The Commentary stream consists of tweets that do not contain a specific stock symbol and so are tagged with two $’s at the beginning or end of the post.  Most of these tweets focus on larger market related or macro issues.

I generally pull this one up at night and review what’s being said about the markets in general.  I find that often there are excellent discussions or debates which I had missed during the heat of the trading day.

The Recommended Stream

The Recommended stream can be accessed by choosing Recommended on the drop down menu below the Tweet entry box on the StockTwits website.  You can also access it by pressing the $ button on TweetDeck.

I do not use this stream much because most or all of them are already on my Friends stream as I am following them.  But if you are new to the site, this stream will be very helpful to you as you will find a variety of market savvy folks there some of whom you will want to follow so that they are on your Friends stream.

*****
For sure, I am a StockTwits junkie and so use the site more than most.  Nevertheless, some of this information may be very useful to you as you refine how you use the site.

@ppearlman

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 8, 2009

Oil, politics, and new-issue sovereign debt were dominant themes in the most recent MacroTwits hour with @gregormacdonald.  Transcript is broken into two parts below.  Edited for size.

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 8, 2009 Part I

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 8, 2009 Part II

StockTwits Brunch Transcript Sat Mar 7, 2009

Another great session with @tickerville last Saturday morning.  Transcript broken into three parts below.  Edited for length.

StockTwits Brunch Saturday March 7th, 2009 Part I

StockTwits Brunch Saturday March 7th, 2009 Part II

StockTwits Brunch Saturday March 7th, 2009 Part III

StockTwits Bull Bear Survey

Please respond to this survey by Monday 03/09 @ 930AM EST.

Great Quips from StockTwits 03.06.09

Unlike many of the media outlets, and we won’t name names, you guys are calling it like it is and it’s proving to be good market intel.  We’re getting some brilliant commentary on the feed doused with just a little sauce.  Here are some that have come in from today’s morning session:

@thurgy

$VIX alternate fear indicator, lol, http://tinyurl.com/c9t2ex

@stevenplace

$$ Premarket traders have extra chromosomes.

@g3trading

this is my prediction for today…http://tinyurl.com/bynj39 $$

@snoopyjc (from Thurs eve)

Overheard on the street “I haven’t seen the market this oversold since tomorrow”!! :-) $$

@aiki14

If you call a bottom, you should be banned from CNBC til the market at least rises back above it $$

and take it FWIW quip of the day:

@kmarquis

Lessons learned from selling prom dresses on eBay: there are more big girls on eBay than skinny chicks. $ebay

[if u can figure out how to use that for a good trade a StockTwits hat is in your future]

StockTwits User Profile: w0nk0

hallo StockTwits, below is a profile of one of our very own:

@w0nk0

He hails from Germany, plays the electric guitar, has sworn off the media and has been tweeting his trades since before StockTwits existed.  The market first piqued his interest as a result of the press coverage of the ‘87 crash and he has followed it ever since.  His schooling is in Psychology and he started honing his trading skills as a Deputy Specialist on the Frankfurt exchange floor.  Though, outside of some financial IT consulting work, he has made his living almost exclusively as a trader since 2003.

@w0nk0 mainly swing trades liquid U.S. stocks across all caps (the majority of German equities aren’t sufficiently liquid).  His typical holding period is for 2-4 days but he will occasionally hold for a position for a few hours or even a month or so.

@w0nk0 uses history to vet his trading ideas: his strictly system-based trading strategy can be summed in one word - backtesting.  His portfolio of ~20 backtest-based models scan all sufficiently-liquid U.S. stocks at the end of each trading day.  From then, his trades are purely technology-based; 99% of his trades originate from his models and are sent to his broker via an API.  His market knowledge comes from observing market behavior to generate ideas and then backtesting against his models.

Outside of trading, our man enjoys real-time strategy (RTS) games, poker and listening to and playing music. (He’s a strategy machine, seriously)

@w0nk0 words of advice to new traders:

“Whenever you have a strategy, think about what edge you have. A trade that is too easy to put on will probably not work, you need something that is hard to think of or to execute!”

And his thoughts on StockTwits:

“Twitter and StockTwits have turned my lonely one-guy-with-a-lot-of-screens trading operation into a busy office with loose contacts all over the world. It changed my life, and I love it with a passion!”

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 1, 2009

Here is the transcript to MacroTwits Hour with @GregorMacdonald from last Sunday night between 9:00pm - 10:00pm.  Super sharp group. Thanks again all who participated.

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 1, 2009 Part I

MacroTwits Transcript: Sunday Mar 1, 2009 Part II

[Edited for length]