Communication is clearly the life blood of any trading organisation, you only have to ask anyone in the city to realise this. They need to be one step ahead of the game in many respects and be tightly connected to the latest news. This information tends to come from a great deal of sources, including mediums such as press releases, business statements, cable news channels and many more. There is however an ever-increasing demand for information to be supplied and received faster and more readily. The phenomenon that is Twitter is now being adopted by city traders according to National Austalia Bank (NAB), as a means of staying connected to those in the know.
Twitter has been termed a ‘micro-blogging’ entity, where people are limited to posts of 160 characters. This keeps the ‘tweets’ short and concise, “which is what traders like” says Henry Allan of the London Lite Trading Group. Users within a certain niche, such as the obstruction light sector, can follow other Twitter members who they want to receive updates from, and can themselves be followed. In the modern world of city trading where companies world in global markets, people from various different countries, sectors and time zones need to have easy communication channels. Twitter provides a central platform for people within different niches or medias to communicate instantly and en masse, allowing them to remain up to speed with latest news and events.
There have been some groups that have frowned upon the use of Twitter as they say it has potential to be a portal for insider trading as messages can be sent privately. Although supporters such as this cable ties business are quick to point out that this was always possible via email and the real power comes from the ability to alert hundreds of thousands of people publically, which of course can be monitored for underhanded dealings if necessary