Twitter is becoming a valuable resource for investors, as traders in particular are jumping into the Twitter community, say many options trading articles.
You will find traders from various backgrounds who share a common interest in interacting and sharing actionable information within Twitter.
Here at OptionsZone, we found handful of traders whom we’ve found to be knowledgeable, and active on Twitter and conducted a Q&A.
We asked them the following questions:
- What instruments do you invest in?
- How long do you normally hold your positions?
- How do you identify which stocks you want to buy?
- How do you hedge against risk?
- When do you take profits and losses?
- How do you use Twitter each day for trading?
- What Twitter applications do you like using?
- Who would you recommend our readers to follow on Twitter?
Each of these traders has their own life’s story as to how they got into investing. They range from professional hedge fund managers to aspiring mutual fund managers and part-time and full-time self made individual day traders. They are representative of the different kinds of traders you will find on Twitter.
If you haven’t already, join the Twitter community and start following these traders to see how they’re investing in this market. Feel free to send them a tweet, they’ll probably tweet you back!
Name: Jim Gobetz
Twitter Alias: aiki14
Followers: 911
Jim Gobetz, also known as aiki14 on Twitter, worked as a Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch for 3 years. Prior to his time there, he was a real estate speculator. He first began investing in stocks and real estate in 1980.
Currently, he is the managing partner and chief investment officer of The Wallingford Trust, with $1.6 billion in assets under management, The Wallingford Trust provides private banking and family office services to high-net-worth individuals.
Jim is quite active on Twitter and tweets his entry points and exits.
Follow aiki14 on Twitter to see what he is trading.
Q&A with Jim Gobetz (aiki14):
Q: How do you use Twitter each day for trading?
A: Intraday I use Stocktwits to see what the people on it are thinking. I believe it gives me a pretty good sense of what the general market is thinking. It’s the discussions outside of market hours where I can put good ideas through my due diligence or spark new ideas that are actionable.
Where it is really of value are the good ideas that I can put through my due diligence or that spark an idea that is actionable.
Q: What Twitter widgets, applications, tools and services do you like using?
A: I use Tweetdeck, and really like it for keeping things manageable.
Q: If you had to recommend that our readers follow one person on Twitter, who would that be?
A: There are many great folks who post, and to pick one is very difficult. That said, if I could only pick one I would pick Fari Hamzei. He is HamzeiAnalytics on Twitter. Even if these don’t get in, Agwarner , ToddStottlemyre, alphatrends, and stevenplace contribute an amazing amount of actionable information.
Name: Frank
Twitter Alias: stockguy22
Blog: work in progress
Followers: 1,499
Currently retired, Frank (stockguy22) trades full-time from home. A self taught trader, Frank learned trading through books, courses and his own learning experiences over the years.
He first started trading in 1985, and bought and held Microsoft (MSFT) for $1,000. It ended up netting him $138,000. In his words, this was when “buy and hold actually worked, unlike the past 7 years”.
Frank is very active on Twitter and doesn’t mind helping other traders out.
Follow stockguy22 on Twitter and track his updates.
Q&A with Frank (stockguy22):
Q: How do you use Twitter each day for trading?
A: I find it very helpful in terms of receiving real-time advice and giving real-time advice to other traders. Traders can even post charts and links in real-time to help each other out.
I post my buys/sells to help some of the new traders out. I also post my profits and losses.
Recently, my biggest profit was on Dendreon (DNDN), which earned me over $117K on an overnight trade.
I actually found the DNDN trade posted by someone on Twitter. Then, during the day, I saw unusual volume on no news, which made me think that something was happening with DNDN.
The next day they had the cancer news that made it go up over 200%+ so for me Twitter is a priceless resource.
Q: What Twitter widgets, applications, tools and services do you like using?
A: I currently use TweetDeck and also the web version of Stocktwits. I have the “my portfolio” tab running in the background on Stocktwits along with other people that I’m following. On my iPhone I use Tweetie and Twitterrific.
Q: If you could name a few, whom would you recommend our readers follow on Twitter?
A: Appleinvestor, alphatrends, upsidetrader and AndySwan would be the top 4 people whom I’ve found to be helpful on Stocktwits.com and Twitter.com and that have good helpful posts each day.
I like to follow people who post charts and recommendations that I can check. Not someone that just posts profits and never posted an entry for that position.
Name: Mark Smith
Twitter Alias: fundmyfund
Blog: www.fundmymutualfund.com
Followers: 1,414
With a BA in economics from the University of Michigan and 20 years of investing experience starting from when he was a teenager, Mark’s goal is to manage a professional mutual fund.
He started his blog in August 2007 to chronicle his efforts in hopes of attracting investors for pledges towards his goal of starting his own mutual fund..
Mark manages a virtual portfolio on investopedia.com and uses his blog to share his investment rationale, track his portfolio performance, and to attract pledges towards his goal.
Thus far, he has accumulated roughly $2.5 million in pledges towards the $7 million he will need to run a professional mutual fund.
Q&A with Mark Smith (fundmyfund):
Q: How do you use Twitter each day for trading?
A: I use Twitter in a variety of ways; since I am not in front of a TV during the day and so much of the action nowadays is based on “government actions” or “CNBC breaking news,” I get information there quicker than anyplace else. I also see a variety of styles — although Twitter is dominated by daytraders, there are some people who have different styles, and even with daytraders you can see the hot themes of the day and on volatile days if they are skewing long and short.
Q: What Twitter widgets, applications, tools and services do you like using?
A: Tweetdeck is my main tool.
Q: If you could name a few, whom would you recommend our readers follow on Twitter?
A: Andyswan agwarner and stevenplace are 3 option demons.
Name: Satuki
Twitter Alias: trader_mom
Blog: www.momdaytrader.com
Followers: 1,733
Satuki is a stay-at-home mom who grew up in Japan and graduated with a BA in Languages and Communications from Aichi Shukutoku University. She first took interest in trading in high school and started trading a small amount in college. She has been trading stocks full-time for 4-5 years.
Through her blog, she posts her portfolio’s performance and discusses her strategy and rationale (check out her performance).
She also actively tweets her day trades on Twitter. Follow trader_mom to keep up with her in real-time.
Q&A with Satuki (trader_mom):
Q: How do you use Twitter each day for trading?
A: I generally talk about what I think about the market (general direction) and stocks that I will possible trade and what direction I will trade them. I short stocks as comfortably as long stocks.
Q: What Twitter widgets, applications, tools and services do you like using?
A: I use the free TwitterDeck, which is a desktop client. I highly recommend this since web-based Twitter is garbage. That is the only thing I use.
Q: If you could name a few, who would you recommend our readers to follow on Twitter?
A: To be honest, I cannot think of any. There are definitely a few good traders on Twitter. But they normally keep everything to themselves. Most of them only talk the talk.
Name: Hiro Takei
Twitter Alias: my10000dollars
Blog: www.my10000dollars.com
Followers: 527
Known as my10000dollars on Twitter, Hiro is like many individual investors. A Penn State graduate with a supply chain degree, Hiro invests part-time and started his investing endeavor with his first $10,000 he saved up. He has been trading stocks and ETFs almost daily since 2006.
He tracks his progress using Covestor, and shares his thoughts and experiences through his blog (www.my10000dollars.com). This is where he hopes to help the readers by sharing the key lessons he’s learned.
Follow my10000dollars on Twitter.
Q&A with Hiro Takei (my10000dollars):
Q: How do you use Twitter each day for trading?
A: I primarily use it for Stocktwits.com, but I occassionally use it to discover new twitters who are investing, follow them, and visit their site
Q: What Twitter widgets, applications, tools and services do you like using?
A: I enjoy using Twitterdeck, Stocktwits.com, chart.ly, and tweetie on my iphone to keep me always up-to-date.
Q: If you could name a few, whom would you recommend our readers follow on Twitter?
A: I would say tickerville, alphatrends, and upsidetrader. I follow their blogs and they certainly have plenty of good things to say about the daily market. I think they know what they’re talking about.
Read my10000dollar’s full Q&A.
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