Twitter Arrives on Wall Street, Via Bloomberg
April 5th, 2013 by admin

BY WILLIAM ALDEN

Largely blocked on Wall Street, Twitter is making its big debut on trading desks — via Bloomberg terminals.

Bloomberg L.P. announced on Thursday that it was incorporating tweets into its data service, which is widely used in the financial industry. The new feature allows traders and other professionals to monitor social media buzz and important news about companies they follow.

This arrival of Twitter comes through something of a side door. The big Wall Street banks largely ban the use of Twitter and other social media sites at work, citing regulations governing communication. Though some firms are allowing certain employees onto social media, that usage is carefully controlled.

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Now, bank employees are getting a broader and more organized view of what’s being said in the Twittersphere. Some on Wall Street already use their mobile phones to monitor the site for information that could move stocks.

Bloomberg’s new service shows tweets sorted by company and topic, allowing users to search by key word and to set up alerts for when a particular company is getting an unusual amount of attention.

“We were getting requests from customers who were seeing news they wanted to be aware of on Twitter,” said Brian Rooney, core products manager for news at Bloomberg, who said that compliance officers from Wall Street banks had expressed an interest in allowing employees to see tweets.

But Mr. Rooney added: “This isn’t where you monitor The Onion or Ashton Kutcher.”

Rather, Bloomberg will show tweets from companies, chief executives and other news-makers, in addition to certain economists and financial bloggers. Mr. Rooney cited the economist Nouriel Roubini and Paul Kedrosky, the investor and blogger, as examples.

It’s not uncommon these days for news to surface on Twitter, even before the wire services carry it. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission outlined rules for disseminating corporate information via social media outlets like Twitter.

“It just seems like there’s been a tipping point where more companies are using Twitter and other social media to put out announcements,” said Ted Merz, news content business manager at Bloomberg. “That’s evidenced by what the S.E.C. put out.”