How Much Transparency is Enough in the Markets

  • Posted by
  • on August 8th, 2009

The biggest arguments waged on the markets center on transparency these days. Stocktwits is not excluded from this.

It seems like until 2005-2006 when financial blogging started to take off, there was NO financial transparency. Nobody seemed to care. The rich poured money into hedge funds since the early 90′s for the ‘priviledge’ of being screwed and lied to. Those were fun times.

Today, it seems like there is nothing but transparency.

I have no idea how much is good enough and won’t get into that battle on our site or any other’s.

If I make an investment that is illiquid, I need to do my due diligence and request – up front – my expectations on information I want and the transparency I am expecting from management.

When I invest in stocks these days, I EXPECT I am getting lied to at many levels. Nothing has changed in my twenty years other than my expectations and strategy. The markets are pretty much the same other than the power behind it passing through various hands.

The transparency is not perfect on Stocktwits, but I believe the features that Twitter has put forward and the community that has evolved at Stocktwits does the best job on the financial web.

I don’t care if you tell me every trade. I don’t care if you are right 20 percent of the time . I don’t care about your returns. Of course, some can, will and do care about these things, but I have learned a few things in my investing career and one of the big ones is…you can’t be all things to all people.

What is important to me is if our service goes down….that people feel like they lost touch with their friends, family, ideas and help desk to the stock markets.

The last two days, that is what I have seen and felt and it makes me feel that Stocktwits is on the right path!

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

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