Details You May Have Missed at Social Investing: Digital Wall Street

Last night New York City’s Cushman & Wakefield offices hosted a robust panel discussion, titled Social Investing: Digital Wall Street, as part of Social Media Week. Up front in the discussion was the power of social media to deliver timely information to hardly sated investors. Moderated ably by the Guardian’s Heidi Moore (@moorehn), the conversation had many highlights, including:

• My personal favorite comment of the night came from StockTwits’ (@StockTwits) very own Phil Pearlman (@PPearlman), who pointed out that social media, and especially Twitter, are not just the purview of the young. No, instead, clever utilization of the potency of social media is more determined by a person’s openness and willingness to chart new territories. Fortunately, while rarely witnessed in the population, this is a perennial human virtue.
• The Reformed Broker (@ReformedBroker), aka Josh Brown, waxed nostalgic when comparing the electric Twitter exchanges between sophisticated investors to former meetings of the minds on ye olde Wall Street trading floors. Ideas are expressed, vetted, and acted upon at the speed of gasp.
• Far from a den of competing wolves, the investment community on Twitter is driven by curiosity and a search for the truth rather than blood thirst, according to Leigh Drogen (@ldrogen) of Estimize. In fact, agreement among panelists formed around this notion of analyst reciprocity.
• Do you hate the very notion of Twitter and other forms of social media because you don’t care what Justin Bieber (@JustinBieber) finds interesting or about how good someone’s tuna tartar was that evening? Then you will appreciate RoboInvest’s CEO Michael Giles’s (@harland) contrarianism. Being from “down under,” he sees things upside down anyhow. Namely, he appreciates Twitter and other social media because he gets transparency into “what the idiots are doing.” So equipped, he can join or avoid the mob as he sees fit.
• All on the panel felt that social media will eventually become the communications medium in the near future, supplanting other transmitters.

For further coverage, check out CFA Institute’s Storify below, or see all of the tweets from this event under the #smwfintech hashtag.

Please note that the content of this site should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute.

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