Steve Gomez is a lifelong stock trader, most recently making a career of it from his home office. But it just isn't the same as when he traded on a retail floor in the 1990s.
"I really enjoyed being on a floor where there was a community of thought and ideas," the San Diego resident said. "Those days disappeared in the 2000s as retail traders were forced back to their homes or private offices with the closure of retail trading floors across the country."
Mr. Gomez, however, is finding a substitute in today's technology: Twitter. And, specifically, StockTwits, a service started by serial entrepreneur Howard Lindzon, a Toronto native.
"As soon as I realized that the Twitter thing was probably breeding some good stock commentary, I found StockTwits in February, 2009," said Mr. Gomez, who has a website with his trading partner called Todaytrader.com. "The idea flow is great, and just like in a real room you can start to get the personality of people after following them. You can't fake it on there. So the cream really rises to the top and that's fun to watch."
StockTwits is the embodiment of social media, the empowerment of the basement day trader or the small-time money manager. It's a platform where users get judged on the quality of their picks, links and views, not by the names of the too-big-to-fail banks that employ most of the experts given exposure by the mainstream media.
I go on my instincts and I've been lucky. If I stick with my instincts, I've been rewarded. I've made plenty of mistakes where I chase money, not the idea. — Howard Lindzon
Mr. Lindzon started this "Facebook of finance" in 2009, and today it has 100,000 registered users and receives more than 8,000 tweets per trading day. It was the seemingly natural next step of a career that has so far seen him dabble - often to great profit - in technology, finance, his leisure-time passion of golf, and even little squeeze balls with corporate logos.
