Oh yeah I am and I feel like kicking myself. For months now I’ve been thinking of an idea to link up the stock market with social networking. I mean using the “wisdom of crowds” to decide which stock to pick. After all don’t we follow tips given by analysts and friends!
Good idea, yeah… but the trouble is that I just kept thinking and someone else executed! Stumbled across CafeStocks which is still in beta doing exactly the same thing that I kept thinking about for several months. I mean it’s exactly the same thing that I was thinking – sharing tips, ranking stocks based on tips received, ranking people who provide tips, the works!
So many times we just think, and think, and do nothing beyond it. I remember Michael Dale (corporate trainer) once saying this, and it’s so apt:
You’ve it all figured out in your mind. Now DO IT!
Hope I take some learning from this and don’t miss the bus the next time I’ve some idea.
on May 20th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Oh damn!!! I don’t believe this… it is so so similar to what we were talking about!!!
on May 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hello Sameer,
I am a part of the http://www.cafestocks.com team. Great to know that you had been thinking on this idea for a while. I sincerely feel that this idea has a huge potential, if executed right. This is a natural progression of a broker’s trading room to the internet, increasing the number of participants involved in the debate and statistically improving the quality of analysis.
It was so resounding when you said – missed the bus having myself missed the bus on 3 prior occasions and finally took the plunge for cafestocks.
Believe me, the feeling of ‘being there’ after a series of three ‘just there but not there’ has been ecstatic.
I wish you all the best in what you plan. If you feel there are synergies in what you have been thinking around this idea and what we are doing, please do get in touch.
on May 20th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
@Sakshi – Well yes unbelievable but more unbelievable is the response from ‘gammatester’! I guess that’s the power of a connected world!
@gammatester – Thanks for your note and I do hope that I experience the ‘ecstasy’ sometime soon. Let me think about what value I can bring to the table over and above what you have already done and I’ll get back to you.
on Jun 24th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Another launch on same idea…
http://www.stocksmantra.com is a Collaborative stock portfolio platform aiming to create social network of rich investors. Investors/Traders can provide their views about market and recommend stock which they feel would give profit in near future. Every recommendation or tip given by community members helps to generate statistics that can provide pointers on stock buy or sell decisions!
well so many people thought on this and some are already online..but ghosssss…BETAs all over…
on Jun 24th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
@stocksmantra – kewl stuff! Though I must admit I found cafestocks to be much easier to use. At first glance, it seems Stocksmantra relies only on the number of tips (as in calls to buy or sell). With the perception of merely a ‘tip trend’ (likely a usability issue) to buy a stock without knowing how much it will soar and in how much time is pointless to the ‘naive’ investor (who is most likely to rely on such a site).
Also, not sure what the ‘Google-o-Meters’ are doing on the site. When I saw your website, both ACC and Larsen were shown to be in red whereas the former was a Buy and latter Sell…
on Jul 7th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
@sameer
You rightly noticed the word “Tip” and that’s what we are trying to brand and leverage on! I am in stock market for last 9 years, not for trading but for studying technical analysis and market sentiments/movements! 90% of Indian investors/traders in market work on rumors and they love to trap “tips” floating in market! stocksmantra.com started 3 years back by selling stock tips for as high as Rs6000 a year subscription! The site is not intent to provide market info because competing with moneycontrol.com or indiainfoline.com on content side would be just like acting in front of Amitabh or Aamir! They have enough charts, News, Message boards and other things…
The idea is simple, provide you stock idea, whether it’s based on study or gut feel and check its progress! In case you show consistence return on site, you would have followers and thus many more things ahead….
Do check out latest release on the site! Also, there are as much as 60-70 new features lined up for coming weeks….As far as errors are concerned, consider it as Pre-Beta
asta la vista,
http://www.stocksmantra.com
on Jul 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
@stocksmantra:
Well I see what you’re saying – but some sort of sanity around the tips; getting some ‘trends’ out of those tips – as an aggregate function of qualitative and quantitative will be good. In other words, completely agree the value behind sharing ‘tips’ but I guess some intelligent aggregation of those tips would be the value add that could make a difference…
on Jul 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Very well said, it ["TRENDS"] is on our Product Backlog and would be featured soon on stocksmantra.com, currently under development as one of the sprint! And thank you very much for valuable inputs, i really appreciate that!
what do you would be the best trends representations that users may love to see?
on Aug 13th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Hi Sameer,
Your post was an interesting read. Since you’ve written it (and indeed before you wrote it) a couple of entrants have arrived – Khelostocks, Markethero etc. I do feel however, that each of them could have executed a tad better. Check out my post on this here: http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog/wp-admin/index.php
Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog
on Aug 13th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
@Gautam – Quite an interesting read you have at http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog/?p=237. Since you say there is scope for another player, let me see if I can build my bus for this (pun intended
on Feb 12th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Sameer and others,
yes i 2 believe there is a lot of potential around in this space. but i guess most important thing here is how you portray yourself. tips have been around for years and probably will. but i think over the past few years more responsible investing has taken over so called tips. hence i like sb, stocksbuddy.com. they do not promote tips. sb is like a home for stock traders and investors to share their thoughts and stock ideas.
i like sb because they do lot of data mining as they say on their site and that is important to get the behavior of users.
apparently sb ranks as no.1 portal for community based traders.
hope this helps others visiting this thread.
bye
manish
on Mar 23rd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
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