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Tech Firm Creates Trump Monitor For Stock Markets (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the two-eyes-wide-open dept.

randomErr quotes a report from Reuters: London-based fintech firm Trading.co.uk is launching an app that will generate trading alerts for shares based on Donald Trump social media comments. Keeping one eye on the U.S. President-elect's personal Twitter feed has become a regular pastime for the fund managers and traders. Trump knocked several billion off the value of pharmaceutical stocks a week ago by saying they were "getting away with murder" with their prices. Comments earlier this week on China moved the dollar and a pair of December tweets sent the share prices of Lockheed Martin and Boeing spiraling lower. That plays to the growing group of technology startups that use computing power to process millions of messages posted online every day and generate early warnings on when shares are likely to move. Trading.co.uk chief Gareth Mann said the Trump signal generator used artificial intelligence technology to differentiate between tweets or other messages that, for example, just mention Boeing and those liable to move markets.

12 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Worrying by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The really worrying thing is that he is so easy to trigger. His favourite news site is breitbart, and Twitter is largely unfiltered. How long until someone engineers a stock crash for their own monetary benefit?

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    1. Re:Worrying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What do you mean, "until"? This already happens all the time, and Trump personally has probably been doing it for years.

      I'd be willing to bet that at least one person associated with the Trump crime family was buying shares in Lockheed and/or Boeing last month. Very possibly Trump himself.

      This is why the president is expected to remove his business-related conflicts of interest. Trump has made no pretense at doing that, he's just there to milk the country for all it's worth. Welcome to kleptocracy.

    2. Re:Worrying by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The really worrying thing is that he is so easy to trigger.

      No, the really worrying part is that the stock market is so fucking fragile that such a stupid comment can bring prices down. I mean, it can't be because millions of shareholders suddenly grew a conscious and realized "y'know, he's right, they are charging too much. I'm gonna sell my stock to show that I don't support such high drug prices">

      I don't know about you, but when it comes to fragility, I'm a whole lot more concerned about Trump than the stock market.

      The stock market has a multitude of agents across the world, pushing in different directions. Trump is one single person who has control of the most powerful bully pulpit on Earth. You tell me what/who is more likely to fly off the handle.

      And to put a finer point on it: the stock market doesn't have nukes.

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  2. Speculative Trading by Notabadguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Stock value these days is speculative, and has virtually nothing to do with tangible value.

    When pointing out common sense things (Lockheed asking $800,000 per round for a gun is too much) or (Pharmaceutical companies are charging more than the average american can afford) causes stock prices to plummet - they were overvalued.

    Then again, statistically rounded - 100% of trading is HFT and is a scam anyway, so....it doesn't matter. Again.

    1. Re:Speculative Trading by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Stocks were intended to be shares in a company that provided dividends in return for investment. What they actually are is gambling. People trade based on what they think a share will do and not really whether the company will actually make money. Thus when he said they were overvalued anyway he is stating the truth based on what stocks were intended to be. I remember when I thought about investing 10 grand in Amazon back in the early days. I teetered on the edge for days but finally resisted. I just couldn't bring myself to buy into something that was little more than a script running on a server. At the time they had no warehouses and distribution centers. I'm still kicking myself.

    2. Re:Speculative Trading by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Investing is always a gamble. You're giving a company capital and hoping that that company makes sufficient money that they can either pay you dividends, or that the value of your shares go up enough that you can sell them to make a profit. A share is a piece of property, to be used either as a means of collecting dividends, or to be sold.

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  3. That's what we call a buying opportunity. by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait for Trump to say something stupid that knocks a chunk of money off of a stock, wait a few hours for it to crash, buy low, and sell it after a week when the price rebounds. Once again, the ultra-wealthy with their high-frequency traders get richer, and normal people's retirement funds get poorer....

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  4. Buddies by itamblyn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just assumed he was doing this so his buddies can short the stocks

    1. Re:Buddies by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That may be giving him a lot more credit than he's due. I've honestly seen little indication that he's sufficiently coherent or possesses a long enough attention span to actually create such a strategy.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. Re:It won't work for long by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They'll stop reacting to what he says because it is just noise.

    That is not how the stock market works. Traders will react because they think other traders will react, and they want a first-mover advantage. Other than tweeting, it doesn't matter what Trump does or doesn't do. He just needs to trigger the feedback loop.

  6. Re:He's off his rocker by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a senator, Hillary voted for the Iraq war

    As did every single Republican and most of the Democrats.

    As secretary of state, she supported the intervention in Libya

    As President, Reagan bombed Libya.

    She advocated for deeper American involvement in Syria

    So did McCain and many many others.


    Now she doesn't matter. It's those many many others who wanted to act the same way who are still in power are the ones you should be taking to task unless you don't care about being seen as hopelessly partisan and amoral.

    entertainment value

    Get back to me in a year and let's see if you think that entertainment was worth it.

  7. Re:Rhetoric is real by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Chinese are more interested in the personal than the position. They are more likely to take Trump's insults as his word instead of dismissing his bullshit as "locker room banter".
    Imperial Japan was different in a lot of ways, but the lesson of rattling sabres at them too many times resulting in the Pearl Harbor attack still applies. What we see as bluffs and bluster can be seen as serious threats that must be addressed for fear of being seen as being weak domestically and being in danger of being replaced.
    If (ok, being stupid here, it has to be "when") Trump insults Xi personally then Xi has to take some sort of action or he'll soon lose his hold on power as someone else steps up to replace the "weak" leader. I can see it escalating to a cold war and proxy war level very quickly. Sadly that trust fund baby draft dodger just does not have a fucking clue about it.