Bloomberg is to integrate real-time Twitter feeds into its market data terminal. The announcement follows this week's decision by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to allow companies to use social media for corporate disclosures.
Bloomberg Professional service subscribers can now monitor and analyse real-time Twitter updates issued by corporations, executives, government officials, economists, commentators, media outlets and other voices that can influence the financial markets.
Jean-Paul Zammitt, head of sales and product development for the Bloomberg Professional service, says: "When important news is shared on Twitter, traders and investors need to be able to access it, and validate its importance in order to incorporate that information into their decision making process."
Users can create Twitter filters and alerts, monitor what companies are trending, or set alerts for increased levels of social media activity, says Zammitt.
Karl Braasch, fund manager and co-founder of Bristlecone Capital Partners, says the incorporation of a live Twitter stream on the Bloomberg desktop will help traders avoid the disruption caused by monitoring separate systems for different types of market-moving information.
"We recognise the rapidly growing importance of social media as a means for companies to release important, market-moving information," he says. "It is extremely valuable to our business to be able to access this information on the Bloomberg Professional service in the same manner we use it for other market related applications and analytics."
Bloomberg classifies tweets by company, asset class, person and topic. In addition to searching and tracking relevant financial tweets, users can also create alerts to monitor for unusual bursts of social media chatter about a company.