From someone who knows nothing about the stock market, I’m able to give little advice as to how one should or shouldn’t go about buying stocks. If investing, I’d probably choose stocks the same way that I choose sports teams, by factors that have nothing to do with their abilities, such as mascots and colors. No one respects a team with a lame mascot, like a rainbow or a tree. And anyone with baby blue uniforms obviously sucks; that’s just logic. These are the same methods I’d consult when choosing my stock preferences. “Hmm, Apple is named after a food that I like, while Spam is a food I do not like,” and so on. Money making abilities wouldn’t so much matter as much as how I felt about each company personally.
So, to sum up, you should not trust me for stock advice. But, even me, the person who would pick chapter 11 over the wrong color of blue, knew to stay away from Netflix last fall. Thanks to the hundreds of negative comments, blogs, news reports, and any other form of online media, I knew the company wasn’t exactly bringing in its top market numbers … to put it lightly.
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one following Netflix’s online demise. Topsy Labs, Inc., a company that researches microblogging (blogging with a character limit) data, did a study comparing tweets about Netflix’s dropping stock prices. The results? By tracking action tweets such as “Just cancelled my Netflix subscription,” etc., Topsy Labs was able to predict Netflix’s stock market drop before it happened. But, what’s perhaps the most significant part of the study, is Topsy Labs is now using these skills on the stock market. With social media followings, searches, and data tracking, the company is now helping buyers predict their next stock market moves.
While this advancement in trading probably won’t help the market challenged like myself, thanks to the fast-paced movement of social media, investors can now have an inside edge on stock market trading.
Photo courtesy of stock-markettoday.com.
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