The Data Is Just The Data…Sunday Reads And Listens

Happy Sunday.

My brother and sister in law – Adam Nach and Beth Jo Zeitzer – were honored by the Phoenix JCC last night for their years of work helping both building and growing the JCC and community. My wife Ellen was the co-chair of the event. Over 500 people from the jewish community gathered for the evening. Ellen did a great job and it was nice to see Adam and Beth Jo get the recognition.

Onward…

I say this often here – but there is no such thing as information overload, only filter failure.

As a rule, I am a trend follower, not a trend starter or someone that bets against the primary trend.

No matter how much information comes at me, I rely on just a few filters to do my job(s).

I try and write here everyday and on Stocktwits because over 20 years people know what I do and what I am looking for. My daily work has created a funnel that brings in ideas, founders, products and people that help me do my job better.

I watch the all-time high lists to get a feel for the markets and the primary trend.

I have a narrow set of reads that I have long shared, most recently aggregated on my site ‘Trends With Friends’ which pulls the latest articles, newsletters of my favorite reads. It is easy to scan or sign up and get a free weekly summary of my favorite reads.

I read the FREE weekly Stocktwits 25 momentum lists to scan for companies and sectors that are trending with momentum.

Riley and I also built the ‘Trends With No Friends’ list that is a unique way to look at trends with high relative price strength and low social strength. Huge winners have surfaced with this simple and unique to Stocktwits data.

On Stocktwits, members of the community are always sharing ideas with me that they know fit my criteria. Those that ask me about other stocks and ideas get a quick response about how I work. It is my job to be open to ideas but to also let others know how I work. I’m 60 and not looking to overhaul my systems for taking in and reading data. It is not perfect, but it works. That said, I am always tinkering when I have extra time.

I believe AI will make my job of tracking trends and momentum even easier and have immersed myself and our team in trying different tools and strategies to make life easier.

I think the biggest trap in the business of investing is to be a jack of all trades and styles. That said, the tools of today will definitely make it easier to try different strategies and more easily find a strategy that fits your risk profile and personality/style.

My friend Larry – who is a new fave read on the markets the last year – had this to say about data in his latest newsletter:

My job is to find MORE smart people like Larry, JC, Phil Pearlman, Michael Parekh, Om Malik, Fred Wilson, Joe McCaan that over time help me get better at finding and sticking with the primary trend(s).

Our weekly ‘Trends With Friends’ podcast is our tool for shining a light on people that we think are excellent and serious about finding and riding primary trends.

To help others that see the world of investing differently, there is Stocktwits which is my home away from home on the web to banter with everyone that loves stocks and markets.

My big goals this coming year for Stocktwits are to explode our Stocktwits YouTube (subscribe here) and Tik Tok presence so bring Stocktwits everywhere.

Our first show/effort to bring more irreverence, humor and youthful thinking about culture and the markets to Stocktwits is the hilarious Ben and Emil weekly Weekend Rip show:

The other big Stocktwits product goal is to launch better profiles on Stocktwits along ‘risk scores’ (something unique we have been working on) that our users can use to both discover like minded people and ideas and of course scan for different risk minded people and ideas. The ‘risk score’ will be an API that users can carry around the financial web. Data comes in handy here as Stocktwits has 17 years of data on how millions of investors think and feel.

The easiest way to learn to invest is to invest.

Back in 2006, Web 2.0 set me off on this incredible path of building and investing in companies that would make it easier for tens of millions of people to invest.

I look at AI as a feature and set of features that will help onboard the next tens of millions of people to investing and help people invest more profitably and joyfully.

I think my role in this next wave centers less on tools and more on education, media, content and data to help foster even greater access to the markets and investing.

Have a great Sunday.