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.
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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
