Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on 2 September 2008, and the public stable release was on 11 December 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web browsers. As of January 2011, Chrome was the third most widely used browser, and passed the 10% worldwide usage share of web browsers, according to Net Applications
For those who are not familiar, the terms bull market and bear market describe upward and downward financial market trends, respectively, and can be used to describe either the financial market as a whole or specific sectors and securities.
Lately people are trying to make these two financial market enemies come more close and socialize through networks. A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes”, which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
Today I read a tweet on my timeline that eTrade is launching its social platform. Well eTrade are losers for 3 reasons, first because it is not a coincidence that 2 days ago i wrote this blog post about their bad customer service and how they pushed me and another 1,200 clients from their Dubai office, to shut down or transfer our accounts, second because it took them so long to realize that stock traders can also network to share trading ideas, charts settings and technical analysis, third because already some other players took the stocks social networking to another level.
Below is a list of few stocks social networking sites that can bring more trading value mainly to beginner and intermediate traders. I am sure there are many others out there, so feel free to comment about them.
StockTwits® is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc.
Keep track of like-minded traders, view their trades and emulate their strategies with myTRADE, see real trades of other myTRADE users as they share them.
myTRADE, Inc. and TD Ameritrade are separate but affiliated companies.
SocialPicks is a community for stock market investors to share investment ideas, exchange market research, and track peers’ investment performance. SocialPicks also tracks picks by gurus (e.g. Warren Buffett & Jim Cramer), professional analysts, and various financial bloggers so you can see how well you perform against them.
BullsOnWallStreet is an interactive stock website designed by active traders. Whether you have experience trading stocks or none at all we are here for you. If you’ve never bought or sold a stock before and you want to learn some of the tricks of the trade from some experienced people try us out! We offer a live trading floor where you can watch and follow our trades. We also offer mentoring, active daily stock picks, and our pro members receive significant benefits that you won’t find anywhere else.
Founded in 1993 in Alexandria, VA., by brothers David and Tom Gardner, The Motley Fool is a multimedia financial-services company dedicated to building the world’s greatest investment community. Reaching millions of people each month through its website, books, newspaper column, television appearances, and subscription newsletter services, The Motley Fool champions shareholder values and advocates tirelessly for the individual investor.
TheLion.com is a growing financial web 3.0 community site for active traders and investors. We offer a highly-integrated community for all stock due diligence process. Users are empowered to share and educate profitable investment ideas across the site medium 24/7. TheLion.com is all about web 3.0 – the process of achieving one’s own financial goals and satisfaction in life.
Stockpickr, a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com, was named one of Time.com’s 50 best Web sites in 2007 and was one of the first sites to combine social networking with stock investment ideas. Stockpickr’s Stock Idea Network provides members with windows into the stock picks of other community members as well as professional investors, sparking discussion via idea-sharing forums and products.
Most investing websites force people to think in the language of ticker symbols. Wikinvest lets you start with concepts, which can be things like themes, ideas, trends, products, and industries. Wikinvest has created an intuitive way to browse investing content by concept articles, which then explain which companies are impacted and why.
Investimonials.com is a place to discover the best financial products…and to weed out the worst. With thousands of financial products and talking heads out there, how are you to know what products are worth using? Discover products you never knew about and share your input on the products you’ve used in the past.
Profit.ly was created by Timothy Sykes & Michael Mosseri to discover the most profitable investors and traders while weeding out the worst. Simple goal but huge task as the online financial world is as transparent as Bernie Madoff’s hedge fund days.
One last service I would like to mention and is not a stock social networking but related to stocks and traders is Tringz, a free, real-time stock market browser for all traders out there using Twitter from their mobile smartphones (all platforms and operating systems).
Users can read comments and tweets from traders and investors and can also benefit from Tringz to confess about their daily trading feelings or opinions about stocks on their portfolios.
Tringz can also be used as a regular twitter mobile client.
The French dairy cooperative Sodiaal and PAI have formalized this morning the news that they granted exclusive negotiations with General Mills for the acquisition of 50% of Yoplait.
Sodiaal holds the joint control of the company that owns the trademark and will be a shareholder of the operating company.
The transaction amount is 800 million euros, and General Mills offer puts Yoplait value at around EUR 1.6bn, and means the French firm step up its game in compting with market leader Danone.
General Mills is no stranger in this case, since the group is the Yoplait franchisee in the U.S. since 1977. The US is the largest market for the Yoplait brand after France, its sales reached $ 1.55 billion.
QR codes or Quick Response codes have experienced an increase in popularity over the past couple of years. However, it could be claimed that they are yet to live up to their initial expectations.
In more simple words, QR codes are square bar codes, scanned by a smartphone and once scanned they are able to provide information on the item connected with the code by directing the scanner to a website related to the code. Giving you the option of creating a simple and accessible channel between every day items and relevant websites. So you can say goodbye to long URLs.
QR Codes have experienced substantial success in Japan, appearing in magazines, billboards, business cards, shop windows, T-shirts, and more.
QR codes are only bound to become more common in the coming years. People are increasingly reliant on their mobile devices, and typing out URLs on the tiny keyboards is still not very efficient. These QR squares are a shortcut around that problem, can easily be integrated with various services, and incorporate geo-location data. Advertisers may not have figured it out just yet, but QR codes are their best friends.
There’s no limit to how, or even how much, you can share with QR codes.
Data can be translated into a QR code by any QR generator, many of which are available free online. Users simply enter the data to be translated, and the generator produces the code, which can then be displayed electronically or in printed format. Decoding the information can be done with any mobile camera phone that has a QR reader, which is freely available online for most devices.
Once the software is loaded, a user points the cell phone camera toward the code and scans it. The software interprets the code, and the cell phone will either display the text or ask for permission to launch a browser to display the specified web page.
To know more about what is happening in the mobile platforms, applications and startups in the MENA region, consider visiting the ArabNet 2011 Shift Digital Summit, from March 22-25, in Beirut-Lebanon, which will draw over 1,000 attendees and 80 speakers from around the world. It will include a Developer Day (March 22), Two Forum Days (March 23 & 24), and a Community Day (March 25).
I have been trading stocks on the US market for the last few years with eTrade as my stock broker, I can say that I was happy from their platform and quick response to market orders during trading hours until the day I received this amazing phone call from them.
One month ago, someone from eTrade Dubai office is informing over the phone that I should close my portfolio with them ASAP.
WAW!!! that is not what I call customer service and when I asked about the reason, I was informed that the Dubai Financial Sector Regulators issued new rules and all clients have to abide by the new requirements and it seems that I did not, simply because I was not informed in due course. So the guy on the other side of the phone tells me, I am really sorry but you are not the only one that was not informed, we have around 1,200 clients going through the same because it seems our initial email about this issue did not reach them.
I told the guy, listen, this is very weird, when I opened my account with you, I had to sign tons of documents showing my home address, work address, bank statements and all other forms, with lots of phones numbers (home, office, mobile), how come you never contacted me when you realized that something is wrong with 1,200 clients? He goes, hmmm I am really sorry but you need to close your account.
This is the worst customer service call I have ever had in my whole life, putting eTrade to the lowest level on the list of companies I like.
So he proposes 2 options, or I totally close my account or I switch to another broker that he recommends, and when I asked my twitter stock trading friends, no one liked the recommendation.
So the hunt for a new broker started, and the with help and a long email feedback from my online twitter friend Kunal, I ended up signing with TD Ameritrade because most of the companies he recommended did not accept clients from Lebanon because of a black list (??? what and how, no idea).
What I can say that the whole procedure with TD Ameritrade was smooth, from opening the account till the transfer of my portfolio from eTrade. I had to call few times their customer service and the respond time was very short and the team was very helpful and had answers to most of my questions.
I can also say that their website and many available trading tools are amazing (online, desktop and mobile), even that I still did not dig enough to discover all of them in details, but my first impression is more than good.
So goodbye eTrade and welcome TD Ameritrade.
The post originally appeared on Dyn.com, a world leader in managed DNS, powering the best brands on the web including Gowalla, Mashable, Twitter, Wikia and more. Follow @DynInc on Twitter.
To know more about what is happening in the mobile platforms, applications and startups in the MENA region, consider visiting the ArabNet 2011 Shift Digital Summit, from March 22-25, in Beirut-Lebanon, which will draw over 1,000 attendees and 80 speakers from around the world. It will include a Developer Day (March 22), Two Forum Days (March 23 & 24), and a Community Day (March 25).
The ArabNet 2011 Shift Digital Summit will conclude on March 25th with a Community Day to educate and engage the public about the Arabic web. During this day, the Summit exhibition will be free and open to all visitors and special sessions will be held for the public to provide them with a better understanding of the digital future.
Community Day will kick off with a discussion panel on the state of technology in the Arab world at present and the technology of the future.
The panel will be followed by presentations on social media and digital activism led by local organizations, inspirational talks by several young entrepreneurs on the challenges and rewards of starting a business, and career talks given by leading executives from top internet companies to give direction to attendees interested in a career in the tech industry.
In other exciting announcements of new features at ArabNet 2011, this year technology is being cranked to the max at ArabNet. As the leading digital event in the region, ArabNet is utilizing exciting new technologies in a way that will change how events are experienced in the Arab world.
One of the coolest things is the official mobile application for the 2011 summit. The application will be available on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and through a mobile website as well. It will allow attendees to view the program of the event, speakers, announcements, and social buzz. The app will also allow attendees to connect with each other through messaging and business card exchange features.
In addition, ArabNet is planning a motion-powered photo booth (using Microsoft Kinect) that allows attendees to take photos and upload them directly to Facebook. Each registrant will get a QR code prior to the event that they’ll be able to use in different locations. Attendees will use their QR codes to tag themselves in photos, participate in voting, enter competitions, and take part in other activities.
The event will feature live visualizations as well of social media activities happening throughout its course.
