6:00 AM
Hedge fund analyst, Shashank Tripathi, wins Twitter’s Frankenstein of the week award. According to Buzzfeed, Tripathi, through his handle @ComfortablySmug, posted a series of blatantly false tweets:
BREAKING:CON EDISON SHUTTING OFF ALL POWER IN NEW YORK CITY AT 3AM IN ANTICIPATION OF POWER SURGES FROM HURRICANE SANDY
— ComfortablySmug (@ComfortablySmug) October 28, 2012
BREAKING:Governor Cuomo is trapped in Manhattan.Has been taken to a secure shelter
— ComfortablySmug (@ComfortablySmug) October 30, 2012
BREAKING:Confirmed flooding on NYSE.The trading floor is flooded under more than 3 feet of water.Net net, pretty harmless, right? Well here’s the scary part. He has over 6,500 followers.
— ComfortablySmug (@ComfortablySmug) October 30, 2012
Tripathi’s actions are predicated on the perfect storm of emotions that define the broader economic and political sentiments we have been experiencing as a nation since the crises of 2008. People are scared. Hungry for information. Vulnerable. And we think it is safe to say that vulnerability is one of the biggest feeders to gullibility.
The result? There’s an overt and terrifying willingness to believe the unbelievable. As investors start to revisit mortgage back securities, as dark pools continue to thrive, as even the middle hanging fruit has been plucked, one thing is certain - in an attempt not to follow the lemmings over one cliff, the contrarians might just be lemmings in sheeps’ clothing jumping over another one. How do you know what to believe anymore? How do you know who to believe?
In order to sift through the lightning bolts of misinformation, investors, managers and information providers to the finance community must commit to hearing myriad perspectives, opposing viewpoints, and conflicting information. That’s why our events at IIR are dedicated to providing the whole picture.
0 comments:
Post a Comment