Portfolio Managers using social media for investment decisions

2017-10-15T18:29:18-05:00By |Tags: |

According to a Marketwired survey of 120 stockholders, financial and market analysts, financial advisors, individual traders and fund managers, young portfolio managers are increasingly relying on social media as a source of information for their investment decisions. In total, 40% of those surveyed by Marketwired reported using social media as a source of information. That percentage increases to 60% among young portfolio managers under the age of 40. These young professionals are three times as likely as their older counterparts to say that the information they obtain from social media is typically credible. This generational shift may compel companies to change their policies in relation to social media. Of the young portfolio managers surveyed, 49% say that the companies they work for currently block access to social media websites. As a result, 39% of respondents say that they check social media sites on personal electronic devices during the course of the workday. The results of the Marketwired survey correspond fairly well with the data from prior studies of social media use by young portfolio managers. A previous survey conducted by Accenture, which surveyed 400 financial advisors, found that approximately 50% of these individuals use social media to communicate with clients on a daily basis. The same percentage of respondents say that they have used social media to get new clients. On the client side, a study conducted by Cogent Research found that 34% of affluent investors use social media, including sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs, as a source of information for personal finance and investment decisions. Amongst this group, 70%, or 24% of the total, indicated that the information they get from social media has led them to shift investments. Social [...]