Investors Now Using Twitter To Choose Stocks

A new index fund has been launched that tracks the stocks most heavily tweeted about on Twitter. Financial data analytics company Market Prophit launched the index, which is based on the concept that chatter on social media can be used as an indication of a stock’s positive or negative market sentiment. Mining this type of data was something hedge funds used to have a monopoly on, as this type of information couldn’t be publicly seen by the broader investment community. The launch of the new index fund has changed that for interested investors.

The ticker for the new index fund is CROWD and it can currently be viewed on Bloomberg Terminals. The index includes 25 of the most tweeted about stocks with market caps greater than $1 billion, chosen on a quarterly basis. Daily tweets about the chosen stocks are analyzed to determine whether the overall market sentiment about the stock is positive or negative. An average score is calculated on a scale of -1 to 1, with 1 being the most bullish sentiment and negative -1 being the most bearish.

The stock’s weight in the index fund is determined by this score, in addition to the market capitalization of the company. If sentiment is negative, the index will short the stock and if it’s positive, the index will be long. Market sentiment will be analyzed every day and the index will be rebalanced according to the scores at the end of each business day.

Igor Gonta, chief executive of Market Prophit, says that the ultimate intention is to eventually launch an ETF based on the index. Discussions between the company and some ETF sponsors have already begun. Interest in the fund has been high because of its potential appeal to tech-savvy millennials, who have proven to be avid users of social media. Gonta commented, “We let the Twitterverse decide which companies matter to the broader universe.”

Reporter at Technology News Extra.

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