Even the FBI use Twitter!

Reuters published an interesting news story today at 12.07pm, talking about the fact that social media can be used as a potenetial breeding ground for securities fraud. Certain FBI agents use Twitter and Facebook for tips and use them for certain investigations, one in particular is the insider trading in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry. 

Two particular agents, April Brooks and David Chaves, said it is hard to predict the next wave of securities fraud. However the advances in technology and social media will add to it.

I will tell you technology will play a huge part, social media, Twitter. Any kind of technology that is new and doesn’t exist today, if there is any way to exploit it, these individuals will exploit it,” April Brooks told Reuters TV in an interview for the Reuters Investment Outlook 2013 Summit, seen on Reuters.

Last Tuesday the government charged a former employee of Steve A. Cohen’s SAC Capital, Mathew Martoma, for “the most lucrative” $276 million insider trading scheme ever to be seen. This all happened the day after the Reuters TV interviews. For further details on this story, read here.

This particular story showed how investors embraced Twitter and other social media sites.

Hedge funds, big institutional investors and investment research firms, such as Muddy Waters (@muddywatersre), have embraced Twitter as a platform for sharing their ideas and investment strategies.” Reuters, by Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan.

Then on November 20th, PIMCO’s Bill Gross tweeted via @PIMCO: “Bernanke confirms PIMCO’s New Normal after 3 years! 2% economic potential at least for a time. Probably lower & longer Mr. Chairman.”

People have used Twitter as a powerful distribution mechanism, occasionally with meaningful market impact,” said independent analyst Daniel Yu, who is an avid user of Twitter under the handle @LongShortTrader. Seen on Reuters.

Twitter can be used as an early indicator of changing investor sentiment around particular stocks and commodities. This allows Twitter data to be used to predict price fluctuations in the market.” Reuters, by Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan.

It’s amazing to see how everyone is interacting with social media sites such as Twitter, and what immense impact they make on different things.

To see the Reuters TV interview with FBI agents Brooks and Chaves, click here here.