Sentiment Becomes Key News Source as Twitter Feeds Added to Eikon

The role of social media in financial markets is increasing as Thomson Reuters reported that it has introduced social media messaging to its popular Trading Platform . Users of Eikon, a multi-asset research, news and Analytics trading solution, for the first time, will benefit from market sentiment during analysis as Twitter feeds have been added to inhibit sentiment analysis.

Social media is widely used by traders to gauge market trends and sentiment. Traders using Eikon will be able to assess news, information and the general sentiment on financial instruments through news and charting applications.

The feeds are plugged into the terminal through a proprietary system that absorbs information from Twitter and StockTwits. The charting application provides a picture of the volume of positive and negative tweets surrounding any given listed company, as well as technical analysis which can enable them to potentially spot market and company impacting events as they happen. The feed incorporates identified key influencers as well as a cross section of all activity to provide a picture of global Twitter sentiment at any given time.

In addition, users can drill down into the data to gather more detailed information as tweets are restricted to 140 characters.

"Behavioral finance is an area of increasing interest in financial markets. However, it has been difficult for human traders to keep pace due to the sheer volume and detail of data and the need to interpret it and spot trends immediately," said Philip Brittan, chief technology officer and global head of platform for Financial and Risk, Thomson Reuters, in a statement.

Eikon offers news and analysis in a range of markets including; FX, commodities, fixed income and equities.

Social media, and Twitter in particular has become a prominent tool used to assess the direction of markets. Twitter is used by traders to assess the mood or sentiment of the market and consequently trade on the back of the trend or direction identified. FXStreet, a leading news portal for FX traders, is one of the most popular twitter accounts with over 108,000 tweets and over forty thousand followers.

The use of Twitter was on the wrong end of the stick with the SEC after it found a hedge fund manager guilty of misusing the social medium to promote false claims.

Social media marketing in Turkey’s congested FX broking environment was discussed in a recent article in the latest Forex Magnates Quarterly Industry Report, the marketing approach has become useful as firms look at new ways of differentiating and communicating with users.