Scottrade has partnered with social media analytics company Contix to track social media posts as a way for traders to identify financial events early. Scottrade users can create special alerts to be notified of financial news as it breaks on sites like Twitter, as well as traditional news sources. News is rated not just by the volume of mentions, but the source of the news. “We’re always looking for additional innovative and valuable tools that can help our clients,” said Brian Bachelier, Scottrade vice president of active trader strategy. The tool is available to traders on the ScottradeELITE platform. It will be offered for free for the first two weeks, after which subscribers will get a discounted rate. Bachelier added, “By making Contix alerts available within ScottradeELITE, we’re placing a powerful tool in the hands of our traders at a time when news is increasingly breaking on social media channels. Our clients demand the most sophisticated technology and analysis on the market.” Contix writes algorithms specifically for traders and investors to identify events that could have an impact on financial markets. It scans over 500 million tweets per day, according to the Contix website, as well as “hundreds of other social and traditional media sources.” There are 313 million active users on Twitter every month, the company reported as of June 30. Facebook reported an average 1.13 billion daily active users in June. “Scottrade is a forward-thinking firm and we’re thrilled to have helped them become the first brokerage to roll out enterprise-grade social media intelligence for their clients,” Ryan Bailey, CEO of Contix, said in a statement. “Working with Scottrade validates how important social media event detection is to trading strategies.” — Read Best Finance Tweets: Party Conventions, July 2016 on ThinkAdvisor.
Scottrade has developed a news rating tool which uses software provided by social media analytics firm , Contix . The tool compares both social media and traditional news sources including articles by volumes of mentions and the source to inform users of breaking news .