I signed up for Twitter a few months ago when there was quite a buzz about surrounding it. I didn’t really see the point of telling people what I was doing in 140 characters or less, but I thought I’d give it a try and see if I could find a way to incorporate Twitter into my trading. This weekend I discovered www.tweetdeck.com and it’s totally changed my view of twitter from unnecessary to essential and here are the reasons why. I took down my Twitter widget because you could only see the most recent post, not the previous ones and I found that annoying.
Before Tweetdeck I always had to click refresh to see new messages and I always missed messages from people who I was not following. I don’t know about you, but I can only follow about 25 people max before it gets way to confusing. Some people are following hundreds of people and I have no idea how they keep everything straight and do they really read every tweet? With Tweetdeck your posts are updated in real time just like an instant messaging service, and you can see anybody who replies to you even if you are not following them. In addition, it makes direct messaging, replying, retweeting, and viewing profiles much easier.
I highly recommend signing up for Twitter and whittle your list down to a core group of people you find interesting or users who can add value to your life/career in some way. I find it so easy to share a link, thought, or observation with my followers verses posting it on my blog. If I see something in the markets that’s happening now, it’s 10x faster to type a few lines on Twitter instead of logging into wordpress to blog a link. Nothing will replace blogging, but I really understand now how Twitter can add value to many bloggers.
Here are a few places to start. Go to Twitter to sign up, and then get Tweetdeck as it’s the best tool to maximize Twitter’s versatility that I’ve found. If anybody knows of other applications please let me know about them and how you use them in your trading.
If you haven’t heard of Stocktwits or Twiticker check them out to find some great traders and stock ideas. once you are following a few, you can view who they’re following to discover more. It’s basically six degrees of separation at work.
Click the link below if you want to view my twitter homepage.
